Glass threat to children
Louts are littering a sports field used by primary schoolchildren with potentially lethal broken bottles.
Pupils at Mabs Cross Community Primary School in Standishgate use Mesnes Fields half a mile away each week for tag rugby or sports days, because it doesn't have any pitches of its own.
But the school says that staff are having to spend up to half an hour of each session searching the grass for potentially lethal shards, tins cans or even nail-studded pieces of wood before they can declare it safe to play on.
Now a campaigner is pressing Wigan Council to carry out a thorough clean up of the site.
And he wants town hall legal chiefs to extend the town centre ban on the drinking of alcohol in public to include Mesnes Fields in an attempt to stop bottles being left there.
Honorary Alderman George Davies, a lay member of the Metro's environment panel, was approached after fears that youngsters could be injured.
Rugby coach and sports teacher assistant at Mabs Cross, Sarah Melling, said that the amount of rubbish on the field was disrupting the sessions and could even threaten them.
She said: "It's such a shame because this is a great central location and I'm sure would be much more heavily used if not for these problems.
"At the moment we have to have a safety sweep each time before we can even start and we bring gloves and bags and the children locate the problems and we pick the mess up, but this eats into the time available for sport and PE.
"We have even had campers on there in the middle of our pitch, youths drinking and people taking drugs."
Former councillor Mr Davies has met Wigan's Children and Young Peoples Services (education department) about organising a clean up.
He said: "The school and myself are calling for officers to make a site visit to the field so that it can be made a safe place for everyone to enjoy.
"I have been down myself and in a few minutes I have collected a carried bag full of broken bottles, empty beers cans and cigarette ends.
"It's time I think to look at extending the alcohol ban which already covers Mesnes Park next door to include Mesnes Fields."
A spokesman for the council said that it was investigating the technicalities of extending the ban on the public drinking of alcohol to include Mesnes Fields.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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