BURNLEY Borough Council has defended its decision to close down the Prairie playing fields.

The council claim the £500,000 needed to upgrade pitches, changing rooms and car parking facilities, cannot be afforded.

The 10 pitches have hardly been played on all season and the council admits that it will need the help of funding from a sports organisation if they are to get them back up to standard.

And parks manager Vincent Gradwell said that the council can no longer afford the luxury of being able to rest pitches each week, claiming that only 23 pitches out of the 40 scattered across the borough are used each week when there is a full league programme.

Mr Gradwell said: "We could keep using the Prairie playing fields in the condition they are in but they are well below standard and we are taking in the region of £500,000 to get them upgraded.

"However we do not feel that by not using them it will diminish the league in any way. We have had the luxury of being able to rest pitches but we just cannot afford that anymore.

"But what it means is that we can now concentrate our efforts on working and maintaining the other 30 existing pitches." However the Burnley and District Football League believe that the council's decision could be the start of the end of amateur football in the town.

The league believes that cutting back on pitches would mean they could not increase its membership and therefore depriving young people of playing local league football.

And they also claim that by not being able to rest pitches would mean an extra burden on pitches being used every week, resulting in the quality diminishing.

Bill Nevison, league secretary said: "The closing date for entries to our league for next season is May 28 but until we get official notification from the council about the Prairie's future we cannot arrive at any decisions as to the number of teams we can accept."

The council said that if a sports organisation does not come forward then the Prairie playing fields future would have to go before Parks department committee meeting at a later date.

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