Thousands needed to tackle worm problem at Strabane pitch

ALMOST £5,000 is to be spent tackling a problem caused by worms on Strabane’s most prominent football pitch.

The grass pitch at the Melvin Arena is home to Strabane Athletic Football Club, who will make history next season when they play in the Irish League for the first time.

However, as the club continues its preparations for the season ahead, a major problem has emerged on its pitch.

Derry City and Strabane District Council, who own the Melvin Arena, has revealed the pitch is suffering from wormcast.

Wormcast are small mounds caused by earthworms that lay on the surface and can give an uneven surface area.

Such surfaces on a football pitch can cause players to get injured more often.

The council has put forward proposals to address the problem at the Melvin pitch.

At present, the council owns and maintains 44 grass pitches for soccer, gaelic and rugby.

All the pitches currently receive the same level of maintenance, including weekly lining of pitches, replacing divots and grass cutting when required.

In the case of the Melvin pitch, the council is proposing to carry out an additional maintenance visit each week, to include the rolling of the grass.

This, it is suggested, will help manage the wormcast problem at the pitch.

The additional maintenance visit will start next month and will operate for an initial 10-week period to assess what impact the extra work is having on the pitch.

“The standard of the playing surface will be monitored during this trial period including feedback from users, premises managers and ground maintenance,” states a report on the issue, which is due to be discussed this week at a meeting of the council’s Health and Community committee.

The report says each additional visit to treat the Melvin Arena pitch will cost £487.68, a total of £4,876.80 for the 10-week trial period. This money will come from the existing Melvin Sport Complex budget.

The report added there was likely to be more requests for other local grass pitches to receive the same treatment, but warned there was no budget for it.

“It is anticipated that users of other pitches outside of Melvin Arena will request the same level of maintenance at all other sites. Any further requests could not be catered for under current resources and would require an additional budget.”

At the Health and Community committee meeting on Thursday, local councillors will be asked to approve the plans for the extra work at the Melvin pitch.