'Save our sports ground', say Bristol youngsters

Young footballers in Knowle West have started a campaign to stop their pitches being sold off.

Dozens of children and teenagers use the open space in Newquay Road every week to train with former professional footballer Colston Gwyther.

But they are worried that Bristol City Council wants to sell the site as part of a scheme to build a £6-million primary school.

The Labour-run authority has approved a proposal that involves shutting Ilminster Avenue and Connaught primaries and opening a new school either on the Connaught site or elsewhere in Melvin Square. The Primary Review proposals say that £2m of the cost of the new school would come from selling land – which people in the area believe would include the Newquay Road playing field that adjoins Ilminster Avenue school.

Anita Pearce, chairman of Eagle House Community Association, has presented councillors with a 200-signature petition collected in a single day urging that the site be protected.

Her grandson Kevin Pearce, 10, read out his own letter to a full meeting of the city council in support of the open space and earned a round of applause.

Colston Gwyther, who played for Bristol City in the early 1980s and comes from Knowle West, began coaching the youngsters, aged four to 14, in the summer, and the scheme has proved a huge success.

He said: "It is going to be such a heartache if we lose the play space. It is all going so well. We have 76 to 86 kids training with us every Sunday.

"Four of our boys are having trials for Bristol City youth teams and several girls and boys have joined local youth league teams after starting with us."

Colston, 43, also put a petition in to the council which said: "Children have been using this open space for years and we have many junior football teams playing football on the space. Residents consider this to be public open space.

"The community has been involved in the maintenance of this area and we have fundraised to get goalposts fitted for junior football.

"Instead of selling our open space for housing you should invest more in the open space so that the play equipment is better and make it more like a park."

The open space, which used to be part of the Ilminster Avenue school grounds, is not at immediate risk as the council does not propose to build the new school before 2010.

But people in the area want to ensure it is protected, especially in the wake of the recent £4m sale of Filwood Park, which took community leaders by surprise.

Anita Pearce said: "We are trying to stay one step ahead here."

Bristol City Council spokeswoman Katharine de Lisle said: "Cabinet has made the decision to merge Ilminster Avenue and Connaught primary schools in brand new buildings. Details of the project have not yet been decided and there will be further consultation as the project progresses."