Football coach denied access to his field of dreams

8:11am Thursday 26th June 2008

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A volunteer football coach from Edgware has been denied permission to use a derelict sports pitch as a training ground, despite spending many hours a week cleaning it up.

Guiliano Orrico, 39, began clearing up litter at the Pavilion Way site, in Burnt Oak, two months ago, because he was desperate to find a better venue than the street to train his teams of youth footballers.

But when he wrote to Barnet Council requesting temporary permission to continue to use and maintain the facility he was told he was "acting illegally" and would have to stop at once "to avoid seriously prejudicing" the council against his application to manage the site.

Mr Orrico, who coaches football free of charge to boys aged seven to 15 years old, said he had not intended to defy council rules, but his "heart cried out" to see the unused facility in such a bad condition.

Since April he has spent about three hours a week maintaining the area.

He said: "I did it to respect of the facility and I felt very happy and proud to be doing it, because it is such a nice green space.

"My heart cried out to find it in such a condition and I just wanted to clean it up a little bit to get my boys off the streets and educate them in how to look after their environment.

"I didn't want to get in trouble, and I am very sorry if I did something wrong, but I was doing it for the sport and for the boys."

Pavilion Way has been derelict since 2003, when it was closed because of financial difficulties, despite being protected by a covenant stating the facility must be used as a public sports ground.

A council spokesman said "active negotiations" were in progress to find a way forward for the site to benefit residents and to provide value for money.

He added: "If we allow anyone on to the site at Pavilion Way without going through the formal legal process, it could have an impact on the council's future plans for the site."

Labour MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore, who joined volunteers in a clean-up of the pitch in May, called the council's response "absolutely outrageous".

He added: "We cleaned the place up for the council a month ago and now it sends this email. It's an over-reaction. How could it prejudice the case?"