PARENTS and their children mucked in this evening to get a village's football pitches fit to play on after a 'disgraceful' piece of grounds maintenance by Thurrock Council.

Linford Wanderers play and train on the recreation ground adjacent to Muckingford Road in the village but had to call off a training session for its many young players this evening (Thursday, 2 September) and instead everyone mucked in on a big clear up operation to remove huge mounds of grass cuttings.

Thurrock Council, which has responsibility for keeping the park up to scratch, came in for scathing criticism for its lack of maintenance, then messing up by coming in and cutting the grass and leaving cuttings everywhere days after a previous effort by local folk to remove them.

Club football secretary Barry Edwards said: "The council have cut the grass just once this summer and left it a mess which we had to clear up. Now they have come in again and cut it and just let all the big cuttings lie there. It's too dangerous for the kids to run on so we have to clear it all off.

"We are doing the council's job for them again.

"It's disgraceful, the council doesn't care about Linford or East Tilbury - we don't see Blackshots or other parks in Thurrock left like this. They treat us in a disgusting way."

The club's youth teams have a busty weekend of matches and training on the park, which is also scheduled to host a charity football match on Saturday - see poster.

It marks the passing in July of former Aveley School student Bradley (Bradsta) James who died tragically young of natural causes. A funeral service for him took place last week.

Mr James leaves a young son and his family will benefit from proceeds of the charity match. An online appeal has already raised more than £8,000.