WORLD Cup fever may be in the air but football won't be coming home for one group of kids at Heysham's Douglas Park. A field used by generations of local youngsters to play football has been designated by the council as a 'ball free zone.' Parents and kids are upset but the local authority say it was introduced for safety reasons.

A sign saying "all ball games are forbidden on the grassed area" was erected at the weekend and now the kids are worried that they could be prosecuted.

One worried parent, Val Jones, said: "It's mostly the younger kids, aged around six, seven and eight, who play football on that field just as their older brothers and even their parents did years ago."

"This field is at the back of our houses. We can keep an eye on them and know they will be safe. We live around here, why should we send them off elsewhere? There must be some grassed area in the park where the kids can play? The kids get on brilliantly with the park keeper and they're good children who just want to play out and kick a ball about. I think it's very unfair and the first we knew about it was when the sign went up. I wouldn't feel happy about allowing the younger children to go off somewhere else where I couldn't keep an eye on them." A council spokesman explained: "Local residents alerted the council to the fact that children were playing football on this part of Douglas Park. The area in question is very close to a busy main road and for safety reasons we have asked that the playing of ball games be stopped on that area. Douglas Park has good facilities for the playing of ball games - including an enclosed all-weather synthetic surface and we would ask that they use this facility where there is no traffic danger."

WOT no footy? Children at Heysham's Douglas Park protest.

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