Foul cried over higher pitch fees in Dudley

But leading councillors in Dudley today said league officials and teams should look to take over the management of their pitches.

Senior adult teams will see fees rise from just over £500 per season to around £710 across the borough under new fees tabled by Dudley Council.

Proposals for fee rises were included in the authority's budget proposals which were ratified by councillors at a meeting on Monday.

But league officials and managers at teams hope to force the council to rethink the price hike before it is introduced in August.

Councillor Patrick Harley helps run High Acres Football Club which plays in the Dudley and Cradley Heath Football League, which itself dates back to 1910.

The club play their matches at King George V Park, in Wordsley, but councillor Harley says the move could hit other teams in the league.

"To ask for £200 extra per team, then if two of them fold they have lost out," said Councillor Harley who is Dudley's opposition Conservative group leader.

"They say the fees are the best in the Black Country. Well they are but that is because the facilities are awful.

"The showers in the changing rooms are lukewarm. They only come to mow the grass, paint the lines and take the goals down at the end of the season before throwing some seed down and hoping for the best."

Dudley councillor Hilary Bills, who is in charge of leisure services, today said the council was open to new suggestions.

She says the council had been subsidising the costs of pitches including maintenance and supporting grassroots football.

But added the council was facing multi-million cuts and needed to find new ways to make savings.

"The council has an open door on this," Councillor Bills said. "We have already made suggestions to them.

"The league could form a trust. If they try to manage them themselves they can get hold of more funding than the council could," she said.