As reported in today's Courier, I have welcomed news that amateur football will be
able to return to the
I have been updated by the
City Council Environment Department as follows:
“Riverside
As you are aware we have
been undertaking remedial works throughout the summer in an effort to have
the pitches playable for the coming football season.
Last Friday we met with a
football representative regarding progress and our intentions for the season
commencing 11th August.
We have agreed to put on
pitches 1 to 4 on as they are currently looking very well following our verti
draining programme and no stone has been removed from them in recent weeks.
Pitches 5 and 6 will remain
off for the near future due to stone continuing to come off these areas. However we continue to work on them and
hopefully they may become operational at some point in the season but we will
continue to monitor this.
Safety
We will continue or
inspection regime on the Thursday prior to games going ahead and the
football representative has agreed for the football teams to walk over
and inspect the pitches in advance of games commencing.
Any issues found will be
dealt with by our Environment Staff Supervision in relation to re
allocation of pitches if necessary.”
I am very pleased that there will be a return of
the Saturday Morning League matches to Riverside
– the league is an integral part of the West End Sports and Heritage
Association that is working to encourage sporting activity at Riverside
and across the West End .
I’m most grateful to the City Council’s Environment
Department who have worked hard to sort out the issues on the
pitches. This is good news for West End
sport.