RESIDENTS in York say an open space in their neighbourhood has become an eyesore in recent months.

The Melrosegate playing field, off Fourth Avenue opposite St Aelred’s Church in Tang Hall, has been neglected for several months, according to local residents.

Sue Lacy is one of those unhappy with things and said there had been issues in recent years, but over the last few months, the situation had become much worse.

She said: “It belonged to Tang Hall School and because it was paid for cutting from the school funds it’s been neglected over the last few years.

“Last year we offered to fund a petrol lawnmower ourselves but the school said they can only afford to have it cut twice a year in March and August.”

Sue said the field was apparently last cut in August 2016, and this spring - when it was announced the school would become an academy - the land was handed back to the responsibility of City of York Council.

However, the grass remained uncut, leaving children unable to play on it, and leaving it a target for illegal waste, and a campaign was started to call for improvements, including the launch of Friends Of Melrosegate Field on Facebook.

Sue said: “I rang the council who didn’t know it belonged to them, and they did some digging about ten weeks ago. It’s so overgrown there’s flytipping going on and things are getting dumped. We’re moving them to the side of the road.

“It’s such a lovely playing field, it’s a disgrace. People who have lived round here are very upset about it. For the last four weeks, I’ve left messages for the council to ring me back, and I haven’t heard anything.

“We had a nice place to go in York, but we can’t go there now because it’s just so overgrown. Last year, children were playing on the fields, but this summer the kids haven’t been able to because it’s so overgrown.”

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said Melrosegate Field “has only recently become the council’s responsibility again and we will be cutting it next week”. When asked to confirm when the field returned to council responsibility, the spokeswoman said it happened in May.

Sue said she and local residents were pleased to hear the grass would now be cut, and looked forward to seeing people use it again, but she hoped it would be properly maintained rather than left to overgrow again.

She said: “We’re absolutely delighted about it, and the reaction has been great on the Facebook group. The council said if it needed another cut before the end of the season in October, it would get one.

"We’ve all asked whether this would be kept up and told it will be monitored, so we’re hopeful.

“I’m hoping the flytipping will stop now, we’ve never seen it as bad as this before. Hopefully we won’t have to fight again next year.”