'Rough start' to season for under 13 football team

Members of AFC Newbury have been using the pitches at Furze Copse off Pinewood Crescent for the last four years.
The land was owned by West Berkshire Council until it was sold to the parish council earlier this year as part of the new village hall development.
And at a parish council meeting in July, councillors decided that the recreation area would not be allowed for football.
The decision has meant that AFC Newbury’s under 13s team has now had to find a new home.
The club’s general secretary, John Stewart, said he thought the decision was a bit strange.
“We made inquiries about it in May but we never heard back and West Berkshire said that they were still taking bookings,” he said.
“We found out in September which is when the season starts. It’s disrupted our plans as we can’t get referees because we don’t have timings for games. It’s a bit of a nightmare trying to organise it all.
“To lose a pitch that has been custom built in the last five years especially following on from the olympics seems a bit daft and I can’t think of any new pitches in this area. Football in general has lost out because of this strange decision.”
Mr Stewart added that the club was struggling to get hold of pitches and had suffered a double blow as pitches at The Winchcombe School were unavailable because of building works.
“It’s not the end of the world but it’s a poor judgement. We’ve managed to find an alternative pitch at Henwick but we’ve lost two pitches in a week at the beginning of the season,” he said.
The chairwoman of Hermitage parish council, Ruth Cottingham, said that the issue was based on a planning condition on the new hall.
“The planners wanted there to be a turning circle for coaches on the site for changing rooms to be allowed,” she explained.
“As there could not be changing rooms there was no point running it as a football pitch.”
Ms Cottingham added that efforts were in place to amend this condition and that the pitch was still available for anybody in the village to use.
However, Ms Cottingham said that the parish council would be discussing the matter again at their September parish council meeting.