Give kids a chance.

Byline: By Liz Hands

Communities fighting to stop their local football teams being sidelined are applying for more than pounds 1m of funding to keep them in the game.

Teams across the Tyne Valley have been struggling for years to stay afloat with inadequate playing fields and changing rooms.

Now, it is hoped their fortunes could change as Tynedale Council is applying for pounds 1.3m from the Football Foundation on behalf of 11 clubs and schools across the district.

The cash could save two clubs, Haltwhistle and Corbridge, from going to the wall and give new facilities to others in Hexham, Allendale, Gilsland, Prudhoe and Bellingham.

In a report set to be agreed at Tynedale Council on Tuesday, officers say even if some of the schemes are not successful, they will keep on working with local groups to develop the projects.

But Derek Pape, chairman of Haltwhistle Football Club, said despite the pounds 220,000 bid for funding for the team, he had suffered too many disappointments to be confident the sport has a future in Haltwhistle.

The club lost its pitch almost a decade ago because the land was needed to build the A69 bypass around Haltwhistle.

Since then, the team has been gradually declining as it struggled to play on what Mr Pape described yesterday as "a bit of mud with a shed on top of it." At its height, the club had three senior sides and around 10 junior teams. Now, it has just one Sunday morning senior team and seven junior sides. That is likely to go down to five teams next season.

It is a far cry from Haltwhistle's Northern Alliance League days when players regularly went for trials with professional clubs. Derby County and former Carlisle United player Paul Boertein started in the under 12s squad at Haltwhistle.

"What has happened to the club is so disappointing," said Mr Pape, 46, yesterday.

"I've been involved with football here for over a decade and in that time, I have seen it dying.

"Teams refuse to come to play here because of the standard of our facilities and you can't blame them. It is such a shame because there is a wealth of talent here and plenty of youngsters who want to get involved.

"The problem is, we don't have any sort of hold on the land we use at the moment and without owning, or at least having a long lease on a piece of land, we won't get funding. I can't see that issue being resolved. At this stage, I just don't think football will survive in Haltwhistle."

Michael Robinson, 39, secretary of the committee which has put a pounds 320,000 bid together for Corbridge, said he was feeling more optimistic about prospects there.

The Corbridge senior squad plays on a pitch beside Corstopitum, but can't build anything else there for fear of disturbing the Roman site.

It is now waiting for progress on a housing development, The Chains, on Aydon Road, which will free up land and matched funding for new facilities.