Football is causing damage and a road safety problem

jazzy

I have been having a problem regarding a football ground opposite my house. The perimeter fence is ridiculously low it's only a few inches higher than the goal post. The football leaves the grounds on a regular basis which has caused damage to my car several times, but there is a safety issue with the ball and the traffic.

I have contacted my Local Environmental Department who have reviewed the club's Health and Safety control measures and have informed the club about the problem with the fence. But there is nothing that the department can do, the department just informed me "that a risk assessment has been made in accordance with our requirements. It remains for them (the club) to act on this assessment."

I have contacted my local councillor who was a waste of time and also uninterested with the problem.

I need suggestions on what else I can do to get this problem sorted out? I am getting nowhere.

To show you the problem, please view the video taken from my driveway camera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gymTL3EZaHM

If you think that this is unacceptable and is a safety hazard, please could you make a comment on the video clip. Hopefully then someone will notice that there is a problem

spiro

I live in Stevenage and we have numerous council owned parks where football matches are played most sundays (and other days) and I dont know of any that have a fence over about 4' high. Some can have 2-3 games going on at one time. Most are alongside main roads including dual carriageways. Occasionally you see a flattened football on the road were it has been run over.

The council has never deemed it necessary to install higher fences especially as football is only played on one day a week. They also use a couple for cricket which as you can imagine is a much harder ball if it hits anything.

Yorkie1

If they won't risk assess it, the only other option which springs to mind is to hit them in their pocket, so to speak. Consider using the small claims court to sue them for the damage each time it occurs. However, I'd get some preliminary legal advice on whether you'd be suing the club for negligence (difficult issue if the council has said they've taken all reasonable steps) or the individual footballer for kicking the ball (impossible to prove). Your home insurance may have a free legal helpline to start you off.

jblack_2

If they won't/can't put a higher fence up maybe they could reposition the goal so the pitch runs parallel with the road.

George_Michael

I would be tempted to write a recorded delivery letter to the club owner/manager informing them of the damage being done and stating that in your opinion it is only a matter of time before the lack of protection around the football field causes a serious or fatal accident.
State in the letter that you are advising them of this so that if/when an accident does occur, they can not deny liability by claiming that they were unaware of any risks posed by their activity.

A few years ago, I had to keep phoning the maintenance dept of the place I worked to try to get their electricians to fix dodgy switches and sockets.
These calls were generally ignored, so then I started e-mailing them, with a copy sent to the health and safety dept.
Once it was in writing that there was a problem, they would have been in the **** if anyone was injured and they did nothing despite being aware of a problem.

opinions4u

jblack wrote: »

If they won't/can't put a higher fence up maybe they could reposition the goal so the pitch runs parallel with the road.

A typical football match has more throw-ins than it has corners/goal kicks.

As for the video, I can't see anything that would cause damage to cars. The bigger risk is moving traffic taking evasive action.

George_Michael

A typical football match has more throw-ins than it has corners/goal kicks.

But it's not throw-ins, corners or goal kicks that are cause of the problem. It's players trying to score goals that is causing the ball to go onto the road.

As to the damage.
It doesn't take too much to scuff the paint on a nice new shiny car, and I'm sure that a mud/grit encrusted football could do this nicely.

mikey72

Just park up, then run over the ball each time it comes out.
Or better, pay a local kid a tenner a ball to stand outside and nick them every time one comes over the fence.

jazzy

opinions4u wrote: »

A typical football match has more throw-ins than it has corners/goal kicks.

As for the video, I can't see anything that would cause damage to cars. The bigger risk is moving traffic taking evasive action.

The idea of rotating the pitch has been mentioned in the past, but unfortunately the club is refusing this suggestion. It is a good idea because the pitch can then be relocated at a much greater distance away from the houses and the road. The club has promised several times that they are going to construct a higher fence, but it never happens.

With regards to your comment " I can't see anything that would cause damage to cars" my car has had many paintwork marks resulting from the ball hitting the car. There was £600+ of damage last Sept due to the ball hitting my car parked on my driveway and denting my bonnet. I had to issue legal proceedings before the club would pay out.

I just cannot understand why the club will not do anything?

colino

It does seem a bit daft that for the sake of a higher fence, the problem isn't contained. But looking at the video the "shots" are so far off the mark that nothing less than a total perimeter 6m fence would do the trick! Is it really an organised team? Pretty unusual the game going on while the bloke on the mini-tractor cuts the grass.

pulliptears

The bloke on the motorbike at 1:12ish was blooming lucky, dont think Id like to be side swiped by a football on a motorbike, or hit one for that matter

The other thing I noticed is one car braking quite sharply to avoid the ball and the car behind having to brake as well. I'm slightly surprised there has been no rear end shunts there with drivers slamming on the anchors.