Concern as the number of football pitches owned by Bradford Council is falling

The number of council-owned football grounds in Bradford has fallen over the past 14 years, new figures show.

It comes as a new study reveals there are more than 800 fewer public lands in the UK.

The GMB trade union, which published the figures as England continue their Euro 2024 campaign in Germany, warned that cuts across councils could “crush grassroots football”.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show there were 105 council-owned or managed football grounds in Bradford in 2009-10.

By 2022-23, this has dropped to 90, a drop of 15.

The figures show that among the 176 councils that responded to the request, there were 869 fewer council-owned or managed football grounds last year than in 2009-10.

The worst affected part of Great Britain was Scotland, which lost 258 land in that period.

The other areas that lost the most land were all in the north of England and Wales.

In Yorkshire and The Humber, there were 471 pitches in 2022-23, a loss of 192 over 14 years.

Not all councils across the country responded to the union’s request, so exact figures may vary.

Speaking at the GMB’s annual conference in Bournemouth, just before the start of the European Championship, union secretary Rachel Harrison said: “Before a ball is kicked, the next generation of footballers have already lost.

“The loss of nearly 1,000 council football pitches could crush grassroots football in the UK and is yet another deeply depressing legacy of the Tories’ austerity mission.”

A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, said accessible sports facilities were important for public health but financial pressures were forcing councils to make unpopular choices.

“Councils face a £6.2bn shortfall over the next two years just to maintain services at current levels. This means that difficult decisions have to be made when they have the choice of funding statutory services such as social care or non-statutory services such as sport,” they said.

“Councils are aware that residents expect a wide range of services when they pay their taxes, yet they are increasingly faced with the almost impossible task of trying to stretch limited budgets to cover the full range of services they have provided them in the past.”

He called on whoever forms the next government to invest in services that help prevent disease, such as football pitches, leisure centers and cultural venues.