Fence wait 'due to too much bureaucracy'

A COUNCILLOR has complained about “too much bureaucracy” after a 14-month wait for new security fencing to be installed around football pitches.

- By STUART ARNOLD

Cllr Curt Pugh said South Park Rangers Football Club, based at Smith's Dock Park, Normanby, had been “terrorised” by off road bikers who regularly caused damage after riding onto pitches.

Cllr Pugh, who represents the Normanby ward and another councillor, Teesville member Peter Chaney, approached Redcar and Cleveland Council after hearing of the concerns and were grateful when officers suggested that fencing and funding from a previously aborted project in Grangetown could be repurposed.

However approval was required from the Tees Valley Combined Authority which part-funded the Grangetown project from its Indigenous Growth Fund.

Cllr Pugh said the fencing was wanted before the start of the previous football season last August, but after more than a year and “months of waiting” it had still not been installed and blamed “too much bureaucracy”.

He said: “The whole thing is just a joke and the club itself is frustrated. If it takes over a year and more to get a fence put in, how do we manage to get anything done?