RESIDENTS are dismayed a community football pitch has been damaged after a fun fair was allowed to take place on the site.

Hebborn’s Funfair entertained families at Donnington Recreation Ground on Friday, Saturday and Sunday last week and left on Monday.

People living nearby are concerned about the state the ground has been left in, pointing out that heavy vehicles used by the fun fair have dug up some of the ground.

East Oxford resident Bill Frizzell takes his children Amber, nine, and Ruby, six, to the recreation ground to play football.

The 55-year-old said: “The state it has been left in is frankly dangerous for my children to use – they could easily twist their ankles.”

Retired university lecturer David Newman, 61, of Donnington Bridge Road, added: “The lorries that set up and took away the funfair in Donnington left deep ruts across the football pitch.

“Try playing football on a pitch where the ball bounces off bumps and you can break your ankle in a rut.

“The field needs to be levelled again.”

Meadow Lane resident Oliver Tickell, 53, said: “They have gone and left the playing field in a state where it is impossible to play a ball game on it.

“We were worried about the impact of heavy vehicles.

“It has caused severe damage to the field.”

Hebborn’s Fun Fair owner William Hebborn said: “We have got a bond with the city council and if there is any damage they will take it out of that to put it right.

“I will be going back over the next few days to make good some of the marks.

“With the weather we have had, that ground there is very soft.”

He added that the fun fair has used other sites in Oxford before, including South Park, and has never lost its bond with the city council.

A council spokeswoman said: “The procedure is any time we hold an event in the park the organisers have a week after the event to make any repairs to put the park back to the state it was in.

“That would take us to this weekend so they are still within the timescale.

“But if these repairs don’t take place in the week the parks team will inspect the ground and then if there is anything that needs doing the team will put it right.

“There is a bond system and any repairs needed will be taken from that bond, so taxpayers’ money would not be spent on it.”