Quad bike vandals cause thousands of pounds worth of damage to Mill Hill Juniors football pitch

On Monday afternoon, several youngsters were spotted on the pitch belonging to Mill Hill Juniors FC, located on Green Lane in Blackburn.

Officials for the club, which boasts more than 50 teams over various age groups, say at around 2.20pm, youngsters, some of whom officials are familiar with, entered the pitch on a quad bike and began ripping up the ground, creating tyre marks in the grass.

The incident at Mill Hill Juniors was caught on CCTV

Club Chairman, Nathan Ince-Sargeson, said the club spends around £15,000 a year on maintaining the pitch in order to give the kids in the area the best possible venue to play and train at and believes the damage will cost in the region of £2,000 to repair, which is not something the club wants or needs at this time.

"From what we can make out, there's a few teenagers who live on the nearby estate and they come to meet some of the kids from St Bede's after classes finish," Mr Ince Sargeson said.

The incident at Mill Hill Juniors was caught on CCTV

"About three weeks ago they came on a push bike and we tried to move them on but they began pulling skids on the bike and told us we had no right to tell them what to do.

"They threatened to come back on a quad bike, and I don't know if the incident on Monday is anything to do with that but that's what's happened."

Mill Hill Juniors FC began leasing the pitch on Green Lane from Blackburn with Darwen Council about seven years ago.

Mr Ince-Sargeson said when they first took it on it was in a dire state, but after spending a lot of money on maintenance, it is now renowned as one of the best venues for junior football.

The incident at Mill Hill Juniors was caught on CCTV

He added: "We are currently going through a funding process with the council and the Football Foundation to hopefully redevelop the ground.

"We need to get the ok from the council first but we also want to get some kind of barrier put around the pitch to stop people going on and ruining the ground.

"We need to protect it.

"The thing is, these kids are dangerous too, they ride around on the roads and the fields on quad bikes and bikes with no helmets, and one day they'll end up getting hit.

"We've had a few people contact us with names and addresses of who they think might be responsible and these will be getting handed to the police."

The incident at Mill Hill Juniors was caught on CCTV

Mr Ince-Sargeson said the police had been contacted and were in the process of looking into the incident.