THERE are no longer grassed areas in good condition for youngsters to play on in Cirencester, leaving us with a town of unfit children.

I am really glad that I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in Cirencester when the town was a car-free zone and children could play safely in the streets. 

I played football every night, often in the road using the blossom trees in Whitelands Road for goal posts.

Sadly, the trees are no longer there – cut down for no apparent reason.

Also gone are the lovely groomed grass areas at the top of Church Hill Road or Saxon Road. 

I am the club secretary of The Beeches FC and we have a good bunch of lads who love nothing more than to get together and have a kick about throughout the summer months. 

But sadly our sports complex’s grass is not kept short enough to play on, so the lads recently went to have a kick about at Preston playing field but the local residents only moaned instead of encouraging youngsters to use their facilities, that are underused.

We used to have our lovely Abbey Grounds that is now a shadow of the condition it was in my day. 

Again, the quality of the grass has fallen compared to yesteryear.

On an evening or at the weekend the whole of the Abbey Grounds was a haven for youths playing happily; sadly, it is no longer fit for purpose, or there are signs saying ‘No ball games’.

Also gone is the best playing field in the county next to Victoria Road School.

Three quarters are housed off for the school and the rest is only fit for dog walking –  left to wildlife because someone could no longer be bothered to keep the beautiful, well looked after facilities that during the 1960s and 70s were a credit to Cirencester.

St Michael’s Park was my club’s first football pitch and again if the lads went down there to play today they would only be moaned at.

City Bank, although undulated was always kept well cut as Cirencester Vics and even The Beeches played there in past years, now ruined by bonfires and circuses.

The growing population in the town has seen the council act by widening the pathways to take the extra influx of people, so why are they not providing more recreational areas to get youngsters back playing, or would they rather encourage children to become mobile phone fanatics, trained to operate their phones until all hours of the day and night.

Please can someone name a place in town so our lads can play football throughout the year? Not too much to ask, or is it councillors?

M.J. RICKETTS
Cirencester