News Staff

The National Sports Centre is to discipline people who break the rules, its management has warned.

Staff have complained about people driving on the field, damaging sprinklers and letting their dogs use the Devonshire ground as a toilet.

Trevor Madeiros, faculties manager, said: “It is a classic case of the few spoiling it for the majority. “Not picking up after your dog means we have to do it and makes it unpleasant for other stadium users. It has also happened where doggy mess has been flung on to our mower operators.

“There are no less than six signs around the facility to inform people of this policy, but dogs are still brought in.”

Mr Madeiros said people driving on the property’s North Field has become less of a problem, but that some people still drove on to the grass.

He explained: “The main issue here is that we have irrigation heads less than 12 inches from the edge of the road and sometimes, if a car or truck catches the head just right, it can crush it, resulting in either a broken head or irrigation fixture.

“The comeback is usually that ‘golf carts and mowers drive on the field’, but these types of vehicles have turf tires that have a much lower PSI rating than road vehicles. Also, if the field is soft after a rain, tyre ruts are left on the surface and these have to be forked back up by hand and sometimes dressed with sand to smooth back out.”

Another issue facing staff is users tampering with the irrigation heads at the hockey pitch.

Mr Madeiros said some players turn the sprinklers with their hands to either dampen a specific part of the pitch or keep the water out of the dugouts.

He said: “The Hockey Federation and groups have been asked numerous times not to tamper with the heads when they are on.

“If one of the heads was to snap off by rough handling, a person could be seriously injured as the water pressure is at 80 PSI.

“Also, the time to repair and cost of replacement parts is not insignificant.”

Mr Madeiros also warned that use of the North Field must be authorised as even jogging on the grass can cause problems.

He explained joggers were allowed to run around the inside of the road when the North Field first opened, but wear patterns began to appear.

Mr Madeiros said: “This is a part of the field we can’t aerate due to sprinkler heads being here and we can’t alleviate the resulting compaction. So, we have two signs up indicating ‘no unauthorised use of field’, which includes walking and jogging.

He added: “Most people do heed this now, but we still have some people who think it’s OK to do this when no one is around and we do get play groups where the parents often give free rein to the children to use the field.

“People that have bad knees and can’t use the circuit road can pay to use the track or perhaps use the Arboretum which is free.”

Craig Tyrrell, the centre’s operations manager, said people who used the Aquatics Centre or South Field need to check in at the reception booth.

He said: “We encourage the public to get memberships and to use the facility, but we ask that everyone follows the posted rules to ensure there is no damage or injury.”

Mr Madeiros added: “We don’t want to stop people using the facilities and having fun.

“But we would really ask everyone to respect the rules to avoid unnecessary, and potentially costly, damage that could spoil it for other people, or even cause injuries.”