A TOWN councillor is urging people to have more respect for their area after a community pitch was defaced.

The pitch on the 33 Club Playing Field in Shotton was marked out on Monday ahead of Saturday's Aston Park Rangers game but is currently 'dangerous' due to recent vandalism.

Motorbikes have left a 'mess' on the pitch and surrounding areas and Cllr Mike Evans said the team will be unable to play if it cannot be sorted.

The Leader:

He told the Leader: "Keith Butler does a fantastic job, he's the best marker around. He spends a lot of his free time every week marking the pitch to an excellent standard and he goes to check on it and finds it like that.

"It's frustrating, they have run straight across it. Even if they were to do it outside the pitch, it's still bad, but to do it on the pitch is disrespectful. As soon as that dries it becomes dangerous. In the present state it's dangerous.

"If we can't play we will have to call the game off because the safety of children is paramount and then everyone will be left disappointed.

The Leader:

Cllr Mike Evans

"Everyone puts a lot of their free time into looking after that place and that's what annoys me. It's down to a lack of respect."

The issue of motorbikes and quadbikes is brought up regularly at the town council meetings but Cllr Evans said they 'still haven't been caught'.

He added: "The bad weather makes it worse. As with the graffiti, it's down to lack of respect and in both cases it's a police issue because both items are vandalism and both have been reported many times.

"It's reported at every meeting and they still haven't been caught.

"They have got nowhere to go, there's no youth clubs, I do understand that but don't wreck your own places.

"I'm so disappointed and angry. Now the volunteers from Aston Park Rangers will have to work on repairing the ruts prior to the weekend so it will be safe and playable. These people already work hard looking after the place."