Mum’s anger at pitches often left unplayable
The mother of two footballmad twin girls has hit out at Midlothian Council for still taking money for unplayable Gorebridge pitches that leave local footballers on the sidelines most weekends.
Sarah Murray, 44, is pleading to the local council in Midlothian to invest in its playing fields after hundreds of children have been left disappointed over waterlogged pitches leading to cancelled games, including her daughters, Newbattle High School pupils Sophie and Lucie, both 12.
Sarah has started a petition after growing angry at the amount of times her girls’ Arniston Diamonds home matches at Gore Glen are postponed by a referee just ahead of kick-off, with the club still having to pay the local authority to use the football pitches at the Gorebridge playing fields.
She said: “Gorebridge has always had not the best facilities, but more recently it has got worse and it’s now ridiculous. This has led to numerous game cancellations and very soon training sessions will also be affected. It’s game after game being called off.
“I started this petition as the girls move to a summer training school soon, which is down at Gore Glen. I’m worried they might go week after week without training. It’s like a swamp down there at some parts of the pitches.
“I don’t think they have played a game at home this year, because the pitches are unplayable. Their club has tried to do what it can to get games on, sweeping the pitch etc, but then a referee comes along and calls it off. We pay Midlothian Council for that pitch then the referee will cancel the game, but the council still takes the money.”
Sarah is worried the state of the pitches at Gore Glen puts local girls off playing football and thinks the growing town of Gorebridge should have better facilities provided by the local authority.
She said: “At a time when there is a real drive to get more girls into football, they should be doing everything they can to have playable pitches for them to play on. Really, the reason I started the petition was just to create a bit of noise as nobody was doing anything. Everybody has just accepted that this happens.
A Midlothian Council spokesman said they were unaware of the petition but spoke of a commitment to improving the football pitches at nearby Newbyres Park.