Sefton Council Pitch Fee Hike

Responsible department: Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Sefton Councill are proposing a huge hike in the cost of using the football pitches on its public parks by all amateur and junior football clubs.We can understand that the council are having to cut costs and find ways of raising more revenue in these troublesome times and could understand an above inflation rise of even up to 10-15% but they are proposing a massive 400%+ increase on mini soccer. Most parents are already paying £20-£35 per month per child to play football and with a lot of households already struggling to pay any increase would see a drastic reduction in the number of children playing football. 
For a lot of these kids it is the only exercise they get and it teaches them teamwork, social skills and respect, once these kids and youths are priced out of football it cannot be reversed and a whole generation of kids will be lost to the x-box or hanging around on the streets and to obesity which will all have a knock on affect in the long term socially and economically.