Football fields trashed by off-road bike vandals

The football fields in Kidsgrove have been damaged by off-road bikers

A charity that organises football sessions each week for more than 400 players has said it has had to cancel matches due to vandalism of playing fields by off-road bikers.

Mark Porter, chair of Kidsgrove Ladsandads, said the damage at Birchenwood playing fields happened last week, affecting games on Saturday.

Eight of eleven pitches were affected, and Mr Porter said it would cost thousands of pounds to put right.

He said the issue had been happening for a number of years, and called for better security around the site.

Kidsgrove Ladsandads is run by volunteers, and is responsible for more than 30 Sunday league football teams.

Mr Porter said the club was battling against a small minority of people, but called for police and politicians to work together to tackle the issue.

He said: “The police have known this has been going on for a long, long time. They need to act on it.

“Local politicians and local councillors need to get involved – that park now needs a fence around it.

“It’s bad enough 400 people and local teams weren’t able to play this Sunday, that’s really bad.

“But what could be worse is, these bikes are illegal, they could kill somebody.”

He asked: “When will something be done about it? When somebody is killed, or somebody is seriously injured? It needs to be stopped.”

Staffordshire Police has been contacted for comment.