REGARDING your article on youngsters football (LET, October 4), Mrs Louise Innes has done a splendid job for them.

I was surprised to learn how much is charged for the school pitches - £17 an hour for practice and £36 for a game (when they always used to be free).

Three cheers for Wolstenholme Rink - without their sponsorship, junior football would be in a worse state. Surely, the future stars evolve from these juniors. What about the poor children who cannot afford to pay the fees? Are they to be left to play in the streets?

Lancashire County Council should be ashamed of depriving these youngsters, especially when there is such a lot of vandalism about due to boredom etc.

Surely we pay enough council tax to help children's sport and dedicated people like Mrs Innes.

We hear so much about sleaze and fat cats. It seems a shame, in this supposedly sporting nation, children should be deprived of this chance for ALL of them. Where is the feel-good factor here?

J ORMEROD, Ambleside Drive, Darwen.

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