Senior athletes from Wallasey Athletics Club are refusing to race at full speed during practice, on the Corporation-owned Lingham Park track at Moreton for fear of breaking their ankles.
Club coach, Mr Carl Gee, explained: 'One thing a cinder track needs above all is plenty of water. 'If it doesn't get it, the top surface of the track breaks up and it becomes just like running on sand. To run at speed under these conditions can be very dangerous.' The situation arose because Wallasey Corporation are applying Wirral Water Board's hosepipe ban to the track.
As a local authority they are allowed to use water freely, but Alderman Noel Owens, chairman of Wallasey Recreation Committee, said: 'As domestic users are forbidden to use hose pipes, we thought it might be considered unfair to use a lot of water on the running track.' Mr Ramsey Hewson, president of the athletics club, said: 'It's a mockery as a running track. People have been up to their ankles in two or three inches of muck.' Mr Gee also complained about the location of the sports track. 'We said at the start it ought to have gone to a more central position in the town,' he said.
Alderman Noel Owens said the track was built originally to encourage the people of Moreton to form an athletics club.
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Source - Unknown - Monday, 06/10/1969 by Geoffrey Barnes
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