Afan Valley footballers left homeless after pipe thefts

Footballers in the Afan Valley in south Wales are being forced to play home matches away from the area after copper pipes were stolen from changing rooms at four of the five pitches.

Glyncorrwg FC, Gwynfi United, Croeserw United, Croeserw Athletic and Cwmafan FC all play in the Port Talbot and District league.

South Wales Police are investigating.

Neath Port Talbot council, which runs some of the pitches, said the thefts were "depriving" the local communities.

The break-ins have taken place over the last few weeks, with the most recent in Glyncorrwg.

"It's caused quite a lot of problems," said Dave King, secretary of the Port Talbot and District league.

Metal thieves stole the club's boiler as well as copper pipework in the clubhouse

"When you have five sides playing out of the Afan Valley and no pitches, they have to arrange to travel down into Port Talbot every week and there's only a finite amount of pitches here.

"Over the last four weeks it's escalated. At some point we have to go back up there and play."

The changing rooms at Cwmafan and Gwynfi fields were both targeted on 8 October and the council is dealing with insurers before repair work can be carried out.

A month earlier, the changing rooms at Red Field in Cymmer were hit by theft and fire, and repairs are about four weeks from completion.

At the same time planned refurbishment is going on at the pavilion in Tudor park in Croeserw, putting that pitch out of action.

The facilities at Glyncorrwg are not under council management but managed by the local sports association. It was targeted last weekend.

'Difficult dilemma'

Three junior teams are also affected.

Mr King said the problem could hamper the chances of finishing the league season, which usually suffers a backlog due to winter weather.

"We hope we can finish the season," he added. "We could end up playing three or four games a week if clubs buy into it.

"The way we are governed, we can't play past 31 May."

Gary Thomas, secretary at Gwynfi United, has called on Neath Port Talbot council to bring the changing rooms back to use, but accepts they are easy targets.

"We are in a difficult dilemma," Mr Thomas said.

"Our last game on Saturday was a derby match against Croeserw Athletic and we had to play at Margam.

"The fact of the matter we really need some of the changing rooms up and running sooner or later.

"We've had three break-ins in Gwynfi. It's got to be local people. The pitches are out of the way and they could spend hours up there. There's one pitch that's 300m away from any street."

Gareth Nutt, head of regeneration at Neath Port Talbot council, said: "These indiscriminate thefts are depriving the local communities in the Afan Valley of the use of the changing rooms.

He said the council is dealing with its insurers to get the repair work done as soon as possible.

"The council has offered the opportunity to play on a field in the Port Talbot area as an alternative."

A police spokesperson said: "South Wales Police is appealing for anyone with information about the incidents or who knows the whereabouts of the stolen property to contact them on 101 within the force area, 01656 655555 from outside or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."