A TEAM of young footballers are being unfairly restricted access to local pitches, their manager has claimed.

John McLaughlin, manager of the Clanfield under-11s team, says a dispute between the club and GLL has now been going on for years.

GLL, commonly known as Better, is West Oxfordshire District Council’s leisure management contractor, and runs leisure centres and sports facilities.

However, Mr McLaughlin believes his team has been unfairly treated compared to other local clubs, when requesting access to the 3G pitches at Carterton Leisure Centre.

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He said that even some adult teams were treated favourably compared to his.

“The whole situation has been going on for a few years, asking for these slots on the 3G pitch,” said Mr McLaughlin, who has managed the team for four years.

“They won’t reply, we don’t get invited to meetings and we’ve been told there’s no slots available when we know there are.

“Surely the children should be given the chance to make use of these pitches, I don’t understand why they’re letting teams out of the area use them rather than us.

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“We’ve ended up having to buy outside floodlights and and train outside at a location in Burford, but we don’t want to be doing that in the winter.

“Ninety per cent of the lads are from Carterton and are having to go to Burford to train.”

John Busby, Better’s partnership manager for West Oxfordshire, said that demand outstrips supply and that prime time slots couldn’t be offered to every club.

“The bottom line is that demand outstrips supply when it comes to the ATP pitches at Carterton Leisure Centre,” he said.

“We just can’t physically offer prime time slots to every club or team that wants them.

Oxford Mail:

“We’ve done our very best to be consultative and even-handed when apportioning pitch time.

“Indeed, we hosted an open meeting for all local clubs at the beginning of the 2019 season to agree a fair allocation of slots.

“We currently have six local clubs using the pitches at Carterton and a further four using the pitches at Witney ATP, this includes Mr McLaughlin’s own club – Clanfield, which has allocated slots at both locations.”

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Mr McLaughlin initially managed the Carterton Town team for two years, before taking over at Clanfield after a split which saw two separate teams formed, due to a growing number of players.

The Clanfield team has one one side in the Oxford A League and another in the Witney and District League.

Last week it was revealed almost 70,000 Oxfordshire children could be failing to get enough exercise.

An estimated 81 per cent of school-age youngsters in the county have not achieved 60 minutes of daily physical activity since the start of lockdown, meaning 68,000 are missing out.