Sefton Council has kicked off its playing pitch maintenance works ahead of a busy period of local grassroots football fixtures.

The Local Authority has faced a number of questions about its ongoing maintenance of playing pitches in the Borough and is working closely with various junior and senior clubs, as well as a number of league bosses.

Football management agents for the leagues have asked Sefton Council’s Green Sefton service to wait as long as possible before cutting and marking playing pitches this season in a bid to combat the level of wear and tear the ground faces after repeated use.

While this approach will help to extend the longevity of local playing pitches, it does have a knock on effect for the speed at which pitches can be initially marked out and maintained.

A spokesperson for Sefton Council said: “We work extremely closely with the leagues around Sefton to keep them updated.

“In turn the leagues communicate these updates with individual teams and vice versa.

“This positive communication and partnership working is vital for us all to achieve our shared goal, which is providing the opportunity and means for people of all ages to be able to play sports.

“We are aware that some playing pitches have not been ready in time for the start of the league season and that is down to a number of factors, which we have made Leagues aware of.

“Green Sefton currently has a deficit of seasonal staff, which is not only affecting our playing pitches but other aspects of our parks and coast maintenance as well.

“The staff who are available and are working extremely hard to get these pitches in a playable condition have been hampered by the breakdown of well-used machinery.

“Due to the request to delay works on playing pitches this leaves our teams with a very short window in which to operate and they are doing their very best in what are extremely challenging circumstances.

“We continue to be in constant dialogue with the managing agent for the League and they are fully aware of the challenges we face.”

Maintenance work is currently taking place across a number of playing pitches within Sefton and upcoming fixtures are expected to go ahead as planned.