Anger as junior football pitches in Heckmondwike vandalised by ‘selfish idiots’

The public grass area at Milton Road in Heckmondwike, which backs onto the first team’s Beck Lane home ground, was vandalised earlier this week.

It follows a similar incident at the end of November, leaving the junior team coaches to hastily arrange other venues for Saturday’s fixtures.

First team manager and junior coordinator, Macaulay Parkinson, said: “It’s two incidents in quick succession now and it is a right spanner in the work for the kids. We are trying to reverse all of their fixtures. All the junior coaches are now having to call the teams they were playing asking if we can play at their place. It really isn’t ideal.

“We’re pretty lucky in that we have got some decent equipment and some good volunteers so we will try our best to iron them out but it’s not ideal in winter, so we’ll probably just focus on getting one pitch ready for next week.

“This week they are all definitely out of play. But it costs money and time. We have to put petrol in the lawnmower and we have to line the pitches out again. It’s a local club, we’re not semi-professional or millionaires.

“They are selfish idiots. Our babies and children are not allowed to play football because of them. We have a tot training session that runs for five year olds and we’ve got to break it to them that they can’t have their session on Saturday morning, which was the same the other week when it happened.”

Mr Parkinson, whose son plays in the under 7s team, has said the club is working with Kirklees Council to find a solution to prevent vehicles from accessing the fields.

“We have been liaising with the council,” he said. “It has always got to be open for a public walkway, which is understandable. A lot of grass areas are like that.

“We are trying to put something in place which allows the public to walk on it but also stops the vehicles from getting on it. That is the main aim. We may need to fund-raise.

The council seems to be getting more and more involved. We sent them the photos of the first incident and they replied. They have also sent fliers through doors and they have said let’s try and sort this problem.

“Any support from the council would be massive as it’s ruining these kids’ weekends. If my son’s game is called off he’s distraught and is in a bad mood all day.

“He cries, he gets upset, he’s angry and he’s bored out of his head, instead of playing football and enjoying himself.”

Asked if he had a message for the culprits, Mr Parkinson said: “You can’t put it in the papers, my message. All I would say is just think if you’ve got family members that age, nephews, nieces, whoever it is, and they love doing something.

“Their five minutes of fun is preventing our kids’ hours of fun. They look forward to coming all week because they love playing football. But because of their five minutes of idiocy they can’t do that. That’s the polite way of putting it.”