A football club claims a travellers encampment which 'invaded' their football pitches and caused matches to be cancelled happened because the council forgot to lock the gates.
Sarah Yemm, 44, club secretary at Albion Rovers FC, claims Newport Council contractors did not lock the gates properly which allowed the encampment access to the pitches.
The club should have been celebrating it's 90th anniversary, but this has been thrown into chaos after the traveller encampment took over its home playing fields, forcing players to find alternative places to train and play.
The disruption began last Wednesday when an unauthorised encampment appeared at Kimberley Park.
The encampment has forced Albion Rovers FC, based in Newport, to suspend all training sessions and matches.
The situation worsened on Saturday, July 18, as more caravans and vehicles arrived at the site, extending the disruption and uncertainty for the club, which can no longer use its home ground.
Sarah Yemm, 44, club secretary at Albion Rovers FC, said: "We couldn’t play at Pill because the council haven’t put the football posts up, so we had to pay to use the new 3G facility at Newport High.
"It costs £110 an hour or £55 for a half session.
"I’m the club secretary and, for me, it’s been really stressful because we’ve had to cancel all the training, including the seniors.
"Obviously, we wouldn’t want the children or the senior players down there training because more and more caravans were coming in.
"It was too dangerous."
She added: "We had to cancel the girls’ teams as well, so that was really stressful because the children have been unable to play football.
"We’ve had to relocate some of the friendly matches.
"It’s been worrying me because our first team is in the Welsh Cup, and I’ve been thinking, 'Where are we going to play?' Most of the council pitches haven’t got the goalposts up."
The encampment has also created financial difficulties for the club, which relies on its clubhouse for revenue.
Ms Yemm said: "We haven’t been able to open the clubhouse.
"The chairman hasn’t opened it at all, and it’s affected his revenue and the Pavilion coffee shop.
"I believe there were travellers on the site over 10 years ago, and it was quite hostile, so they were worried it would be like that again."
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Albion Rovers believe the encampment may have gained access because gates were left unsecured after council contractor work.
Ms Yemm said: "We’ve gone to the council because it’s their issue.
"I’ve been very clear that all the people at the club are volunteers—we aren’t paid members of staff.
"We are strict with our coaches to make sure they lock the barriers, even though the site belongs to the council.
"It was the council that left the locks off the low and overhead barriers because there were contractors working on the pitch, but they didn’t put the specialised padlocks back on.
"So that’s very worrying and frustrating because we are very strict with our coaches to make sure they lock the barriers.
"The people who left them unlocked were council staff and contractors."
There are also concerns about the condition of the site, with reports of human waste and rubbish left behind.
Ms Yemm said: "We’ve got a container with all the footballs in it and a changing room that we haven’t even been checked yet.
"The pitch is in a terrible mess with bags of rubbish.
"There’s human faeces in one corner.
"We don’t know if we can play on the pitch.
"You could smell it, and there was tissues everywhere.
"There’s rubbish at the play park too.
"We don’t know whether it’ll be fit for play."
A spokesman for Newport City Council said: "We're still investigating what happened at Kimberley Park."
Previously, Newport City Council said it assesses unauthorised encampments on a case-by-case basis and works alongside Gwent Police under a regional protocol to determine the most appropriate course of action.
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