VANDALISM on the grounds of Crowndale football pitch has sparked outrage among local residents, writes Lindsay Turpin.

Last week broken glass bottles, empty plastic bottles and cans were found strewn around the area.

Finding litter within the football grounds is an almost everyday occurrence for Allen Lewis, commercial manager at Tavistock Football Club, who visits the site daily to make sure the area is safe for the public.

Last Tuesday he was shocked to not only find scorch marks on the pitch after a group of people had burned carpet in to the ground, but a few days later on Friday, he found broken glass from alcohol bottles.

Allen has spent hours clearing up the site and said the action by a group of people was 'disrespectful'.

Allen said: 'Why would anyone want to leave this lot on a football pitch that children love playing on?

'I am mortified, as this is dangerous and someone could easily hurt themselves.

'One of my concerns is for the nearby stock, if they get hold of the bags and bottles it could cause damage to them.

'This is awful and upsetting; this whole thing is so disrespectful.'

Tavistock and West Devon councillor Jeff Moody has expressed his concern over the issue saying that this is 'appalling and unacceptable'.

'The problem is that it's private property — if I could do something I would.

'I contacted the police but the police are stretched with their resources. It's all about community self help and to flag the issue to the police.

'This latest incident is awful as it involved broken bottles. If young people play there, no matter how thorough a person cleans up, there is a possibility that there is still broken glass in the ground.

'We just want people to respect the area.'

Last year, during the summer months, there were repeated occurrences of trollies and litter being dumped and scattered around the Crowndale area.

Allen said: 'We had four trollies dumped around the football grounds — one in the river and on the football pitch at Crowndale where all the youth teams play.

'It's not just the trollies though, they are also bringing in all their litter — it's endless.'