I have read with interest recent letters concerning the Councils decision to increase football pitch hire costs for some grounds to

I have read with interest recent letters concerning the Councils decision to increase football pitch hire costs for some grounds to £60. As Secretary of a club who hired pitches at both Milton and King Georges for over 25 years I have always wondered what the true cost per pitch would be if all the total expense was passed on. I am sure someone at Swale Council could qualify a figure. The Council do have a duty to provide some leisure services from community charges but everything will always come down to a question of priorities and available funding.

As a non-profit making organisation my club now manages Woodstock Park and we charge for an equivalent football pitch £42.55 plus VAT. In our little set-up that figure covers 40% of the cost of providing football for 23 local teams of all ages and denominations. A further 20% of that cost is met by good local and County wide businesses that sponsor the club and or advertise with us. Another 5% comes from a small band of generous individuals who make donations to keep the facilities going. The final 35% is raised by yet another small band of people who are dedicated volunteers that sit on my Clubs committee and who give up hours and hours of their time to fund raise and manage our modest bar and facilities. If we passed on our true costs, pitches would be well over £100 a time.

The long term outlook is we will have less grass football pitches available. In recent years grass football pitches in this Country have been closing at the rate of one per week. Some have been replaced with all weather surfaces; others have just been lost to the game forever. If the game I love starts losing volunteers at the same rate as pitches we will have no future at all. Sadly with the abuse of facilities ever increasing, that trend has already started. In the last couple of years I have seen good individual volunteers give up because they are not appreciated or more likely the effort they put in is undone by people who abuse and damage facilities.

The real problem therefore facing local teams in the future is not what the cost is but where are we going to play as more pitches close. If a pitch does get earmarked to close, will a group of local teams or individuals get together and keep it open? That will be the real test: not any price increase. My point to everyone, is whilst price increases are a concern, let's worry more about keeping what pitches we do have open and functioning. To do that we need to appreciate the facilities we have got and look after them as best we can. If the only pitch available to a Club is £60 then that club will have to raise the funds to meet it and individual players and members will have to decide ways to achieve this . If no team wants to play on a ground at £60 a time then it will close and football will be the loser. I hope football is not the loser.