Sewage floods onto pitches at Pontefract Colleries

Heavy rain has ruined junior football pitches after causing raw sewage to flood onto them.
Flooding at Pontefract Colleries Football ClubFlooding at Pontefract Colleries Football Club
Flooding at Pontefract Colleries Football Club

Five pitches at Pontefract Collieries FC’s ground off Beechnut Lane were damaged after heavy rain fell on Tuesday.

The flooding comes just months after vandals went on a £10,000 wrecking spree at the club’s stadium.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Patrick Monaghan, club chairman, said: “Flooding like this happens every time it rains. The tarmac down the lane starts bubbling up and then it floods out from the drains and runs straight onto the pitch.

“We’re still counting the cost of the vandalism so this flooding could have a serious effect on us. It’s awful we just feel like giving in.”

Mr Monaghan said the flooding and sewage has ruined pitches used by the club’s junior teams which include youngsters from the ages of five to 18.

He said: “The season starts in just two weeks and we rely on what we get through the gate and bums on seats to survive. People aren’t going to want to come to a vandalised ground that floods - that’s our biggest worry.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Yobs smashed windows, fences, walls, lights and security cameras and burned seats in both the ground’s stands and dugout during attacks on May 9 and 10.

Mr Monaghan said: “We’ve been plagued by vandals for quite a while but it was just reckless stuff like smashing bottles and people getting in to the ground.

“But it all went too far with the wrecking spree last month.

“They completely trashed the place and then we had the graffiti - it’s just heartbreaking and I wish they’d just leave us alone.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We just want them to allow us to grow and be a part of the community.

“They are Pontefract just as much as we are so it just shows that they have no respect.

“We think it is youths because we are isolated and it makes us an easy target.”

Mr Monaghan said the club had been given an extension by Northern Counties East Football League to get the ground up to standard for the start of the season on August 8.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Insp Geoff Carter, of Pontefract and Knottingley neighbourhood police team (NPT), said enquiries into the vandalism were continuing.

He said: “I would encourage anyone with information that may assist the investigation to contact police.”

Anyone with any information should contact the NPT on 101. Alternatively, call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

Related topics: