A WIRRAL rugby club faces a massive bill to remove a car park and restore the land to its original state.
Councillors will next week be asked to approve enforcement action against Wirral Rugby and Cricket Club in Thornton Hough.
But chairman of rugby at the club, Dave Van der Zwan, was appalled at council’s response.
He said: "We have that many kids on a Sunday morning that people across the road were complaining they couldn’t get past. It cost the club £6,500 to put in.
"But on top of that every weekend the traffic wardens come over and book every car down the road – and all we’re trying to do is provide a facility for the kids to play sport."
At the Wirral Council planning meeting next Thursday [JAN 29] councillors will be asked to refuse a retrospective planning application for the car parking area.
At the same meeting a report recommending the club be ordered to remove the car park within three months will be presented.
According to the council: "An area of the field adjacent to the rugby pitches has been scraped and construction rubble containing bricks and other hardcore has been used to create a hardstanding. The hardstanding is approximately 200 sq metres."
Mr Van Der Zwan said the car park is an overflow car park, used at weekends when the usual car park becomes too full, and that the original information by the authority was that they did not need planning permission for it.
He said: "We can’t do without it. We’re a non-profit organisation run by volunteers and we do this for kids – even with the senior teams their kids are involved too."
However, the report said the car park "constitutes inappropriate development" which "results in visual harm to the openness of the Green Belt".
The council report said they had received three letters objecting to the car park and two in support, and added: "There is an existing car park to the west of the field. The proposal does not fall into the category of an essential facility for sport as a car park exists that serves the club to the west of these fields.
"No evidence has been supplied to show the numbers of vehicles used at any time and why the current car park cannot cope with the numbers."
