A STEEL and timber firm has stepped in to returf a patch of a junior football pitch that was vandalised.

Part of Cleck Sporting Juniors' pitch, in Mann Dam Park, off Spen Lane, in Cleckheaton, was left scorched on Sunday, January 5.

A bunch of youths allegedly set fire to a wheelie bin on the playing field, leaving a mess of burnt litter and charred grass on the day one of the club's teams were due to play.

Club Secretary Tina Hardy, and her husband Colin Hardy - the Chairman - were left fuming.

Mrs Hardy said: "Some people are just scumbags, setting a fire on a grassroots football pitch at Mann Dam.

"There's spare land around the pitch to set a fire, but no let's set a fire on the pitch.

"Parents please speak to your children and tell them to respect grassroots football pitches, so children that do want to do sport have the opportunity to play.

"We're fed up of people vandalising our pitch.

"Apparently they've been doing it at Moorend. It's kids that are doing it.

"The bins haven't been emptied over Christmas, so it seems to be that, that they're burning."

Player parents and volunteers managed to clean the blackened litter so the game could go ahead.

But, the process involved ripping up some of the turf because parts of the burnt mess had stuck to the ground.

Company Tomahawk Steel and Timber spotted a post about the ordeal on social media and decided to offer to sort the damaged patch, using spare turf from another job.

Mrs Hardy said: "This firm saw on Facebook; I couldn't believe no one came forward in 2018.

"But this guy did now and I thought it was brilliant.

"It was lovely. For somebody to do that, it means a lot for us, because obviously we're a family club and we're not as big as those around us.

"It's all about the kids.

"The firm has already been down and knows exactly what to do."

It is a welcome donation for the club, who have experienced trouble with vandals over the last year or so.

At the end of 2018, a quad bike was used to churn up the pitch and it left it totally unplayable.

Read more about that here...

A less serious quad bike incident happened last year too, Mrs Hardy said.

She added: "The quads on there wrecked it previously - it was just absolutely wrecked.

"We've been in touch with the council several times.

"I got a response back today and they said there's nothing they can do.

"Some clubs put fencing down, but the clubs are responsible.

"I do a lot of charity things, I run a group at Liversedge Cemetery where we clean and tidy it up and get all the weeds out.

"It's just a matter of getting something back."

The club - which has a Development Team, two U8 sides, and a U10, U11 and U13 team - could face extinction if such issues continue, says Mrs Hardy.

She added: "If it continues, I really don't know, we can't even get any pitches from the council.

"We play our matches at Mann Farm, but also Batley for other teams.

"It's all the way there for the players to play the teams.

"We wanted to see if we could get a pitch at one site, but we didn't get that.

"They're all sidelined for other things.

"There's availability in the area but they won't give us it."