IT was excellent to see read (Bury Times , May 26) about the growth of hockey in Bury and the development of Bury Jaguars. My two children were on the photograph and my wife is involved in the coaching and running of the club.

However, it is ironic that the previous day my wife had been informed of the closure of the all-weather facility at Goshen Sports centre. Goshen is the only full-sized all-weather pitch within the borough of Bury and was used as a training base for Bury Jaguars Junior Hockey Club. A lot of hard work has been put in by the coaches, children and parents to produce the success and achievement referred to in the article. This hard work is now under threat as the children, who are all from the borough, now have nowhere to train or play matches. Players who have learnt their skills in Bury could now be lost to other areas and to other teams.

This year's Greater Manchester Youth Games are only three weeks away and the squad has been left with the major problem of where to train. A number of practice matches have had to be re-arranged at great inconvenience to all involved.

Schools hockey will also be hit by the closure as their league games were played at Goshen. There will be no senior hockey played in Bury as Elton Ladies and Bury Ladies, who both used Goshen as their home pitch, will now have to look elsewhere to play their home matches.

The surface has been in need of repair for a long time and the council have been informed of this on many occasions. Nothing was done and now that the facility has been closed down the council are facing the problem of how to pay for the repairs.

I have a copy of the glossy booklet "Creating Sporting Futures", produced for Bury Metro by Stan Hayward in association with Steven Abbott Associates. In this I note the "vision" is "to ensure, through effective partnerships, access to a wide range of affordable, high quality sporting and recreational opportunities which satisfy the needs of the Bury Community".

Can someone explain to me how this vision is to be achieved when the current facilities are not maintained and developed? Hockey is, in fact, one of the "active sports" chosen by Sport England who describe an "active sport" as one which involves local clubs, local authorities, education services, schools and governing bodies of sport all working together in partnership for the first time to provide participation, competition and skills improvement opportunities for young people in their area".

A meeting has already been held in relation to developing hockey as an active sport. However, with the closure of Goshen I am not sure how Bury Metro can continue with this programme.

I rather hoped that as we moved into the 21st century the opportunities that were not available to me would be available to my children. I am not so sure now that this is possible. I know that it is not only hockey that will suffer from the closure and lack of maintenance of Goshen and I urge all interested parties to write to their local councillor and MP to highlight this matter.

MARK EVANS,

Elton, Bury.