JUNIOR football organisers in Llay fear for the future of their teams if proposals to charge for parking at country parks across Wrexham go ahead.

Officials at Llay United YFC believe youngsters could drop out of youth football as their parents are hemmed in by parking fees set to be introduced by Wrexham Council at Alyn Waters, Nant Mill and Ty Mawr.

Currently, 11 of Llay’s 16 junior teams train and play at pitches at Alyn Waters, but club secretary Dave Adams says they may have to disband some teams if numbers drop off.

While evening training sessions fall outside the proposed charging time (from 9am to 5pm), Mr Adams says the costs will mount up for parents when they descend on the park with their children for weekend matches.

Llay claim it could become the only sports club in the borough where parents have to pay to park.

“The parents will take their kids elsewhere and we will lose teams if this goes ahead,” said Mr Adams. “This Saturday we will have 40 children at Alyn Waters when we play Coedpoeth, while on Sunday we could have up to 80 on the four pitches.

“The boys play 30 times a year so the parking charges will add up for their parents. We’ve never been charged to use this pitch, but all of a sudden there are going to be charges.”

Llay runs mini-football sessions at Alyn Waters for age groups from four up to 11 with older age groups accommodated at facilities at Shone’s Lane and Castell Alun.

Unlike the latter two venues, the club is not charged for the use of what is public open space land, although Llay United YFC stress the facilities which do not inlude changing rooms or toilets are maintained by their own efforts.

“The pitches at Alyn Waters were set up about 20 years, but we’ve carried on maintaining them after the council stopped,” outlined Mr Adams. “There are no toilets – it is just a car park and a field and the gates are never closed.”

Wrexham Council plans to place ticket machines at the all three parks, although there is the offer of an annual parking permit at £50 to bring costs down.

The council’s lead member for environment and transport, Cllr David Bithell, says the measures could net £47,000 extra revenue a year which would help to offset planned cuts.

The council’s executive board will decide on the proposals – which also include charging disabled parkers – today and if agreed they could be in place by April 3 after a formal consultation period.

Cllr Bithell said: “Charging for parking in our country parks is not going to be popular with everyone. The area used by Llay FC is not a marked out football pitch but is public open space and, until recently, we were not aware that it was being used for regular training purposes.

“There is a fully maintained and marked out football pitch at Shone’s Lane in Llay which could be considered by Llay for future training uses.”

But Llay councillor Brian Apsley is sympathetic with the club’s plight and pointed out: “It has been suggested Llay United YFC can use Shone’s Lane, but that has always been used by the club.

“With 200 children attending this is a thriving club and I do think it is going to be a problem for them at weekends, although the 9am to 5pm charges won’t impact on them. It could also cause a problem in the village although cuts have to be made.”

Llay’s secretary says the club has written to all members of the executive board to state its opposition to the proposed charging.