A FOOTBALLING plea to lease a pitch in Davenham has been turned down by councillors.

Davenham Parish Council fears that land at Butchers Stile field would be lost for the community if it was leased to Davenham Junior Football Club.

Clr Arthur Wood said: “This has cropped up before and the view we took then was that we don’t want to lose the field to the rest of the community by having it wrapped up in a lease.”

He added: “We’ve had a lot of complaints in the past about it being lost to the village with the cricket club but that goes back a long time and at least the cricket club provides facilities for the use of the village as well.

“I don’t know the stomach people would have for taking another field off the community.”

Clr Dave Ravenscroft said the pitch was well used by the football club, a football team from the Bull’s Head pub and families.

“We have families playing on the pitch which they might not be able to do if the football club had a lease,” he said.

In its letter to the parish council to ask if it could have a lease, Davenham Junior Football Club also raised concerns about deterioration of the playing surface at Butchers Stile.

Councillors argued that this was because it had been played on while it was wet.

Clr Ravenscroft said: “On two occasions after an excessively wet Friday the juniors played on it on the Saturday morning so a lot of this damage is their own doing.”

He added: “Hopefully the pitch will have a decent break over summer and give it a chance to grow.”