Routine Maintenance

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Routine Maintenance
When the issue of cost of pitch hire is discussed, usually the first words out of the mouth of users are the lack of apparent maintenance with comments such as "What maintenance? We’re lucky if the grass gets cut and the white lines marked!" For information the following are the routine processes are carried out within annual grounds maintenance of playing fields. Fertiliser is applied to all grass sports pitches in Autumn, this operation strengthen grass growth and enables existing grass to establish and to produce a healthy sward to improve the surface of the pitches. During the playing season individual pitches have 10 programmed slitting operations which helps keep playing surfaces open and move water away from the surfaces of play. All pitches have lines marked out weekly during the playing season. Grass is cut as standard approximately every 12 days from April-October. In times of mild conditions and extended grass growth arrangements are made to assess individual pitches and where possible, grass cutting will be issued to make surfaces playable. Posts are removed at the end of a playing season to protect pitches from informal use and painted prior to re-erection to extend their life expectancy. Average cost per pitch £1350.00 per season (2002-2003) In addition to the annual maintenance programme there is also a renovation programme that is employed at the end of each playing season. Annual Renovation Programme Just before the end of the playing season an officer of Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust inspects every pitch and an assessment is made of what is required to bring the pitches to a safe and playable condition for the following seasons play. The most problematic issue across the grass pitches of the borough of Wigan is compaction of the surface of the playing area caused by overplay or unauthorised training. To improve the surfaces a root zone material that is a mix of sand (70%) and soil (30%), is imported into the depressed areas on pitches. Areas that are to be levelled are ripped by machine to relieve compaction and aid the incorporating of the imported root zone. During the summer of 2002, 1720 tonnes of root zone were applied to pitches across the borough. 640 tonnes of sand were used to top dress pitches. Following the levelling all pitches are over seeded by a special machine (Gannon) that lightly cultivates the surface of the grass pitch prior to applying seed. Following trails over the last few years Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust have decided to apply a relatively expensive seed that has a coating of fertiliser. This seed enable good grass coverage to be produced in the small time scale that is available in the closed season. Over £38,000 was spent on over seeding pitches for the start of the 2002-2003 season. Verti Draining completes the process and is an operation that drives long spikes into the ground to develop the link between the surface of the pitch and underlying drainage. This operation is now done annually following assessments of the effectiveness of the operation in the past. Total spend on renovation of grass pitches in summer 2002 for the start of the season 2002-2003 was £89,938.58 An average renovation cost per pitch of £960.00. Contacts If you have a query regarding the maintenance of playing fields you can contact a relevant officer on 01942 776612. For enquiries relating to Playing Field Development contact: Mr Andrew Bond, Parks Regeneration Manager Tel: 01942 828827 E-mail: a.bond@wlct.org	Gang mowing Fertiliser spreader at Scot Lane (rear of Soccer Dome) Wigan Marking out pitches Gannon in operation - rear view
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