VANDALS and dog walkers not clearing up after their pets have caused a £300,000 sports club near York to go "straight down the tubes", just two years after it opened.

The Strensall Sports Association opened a new pavilion in Durlston Drive in the village in October, providing showers and changing rooms for football, tennis and netball players.

The bulk of the funding for the club came from a £200,000 lottery grant.

But now the sports association is waging an ongoing battle against worsening vandalism, with cans and bottles thrown into the pavilion's oil tank and across the tennis courts, tiles pulled from the roof, and broken glass often littering the football pitch.

Added to these problems is the mess left by dogs, whose owners ignore signs banning the exercising of pets on the sports field.

Peter Jesse, chairman of Strensall Parish Council said: "The sports club is in a dreadful state, it's very disappointing. The place only opened two years ago and now it's going straight down the tubes. We need to find a way of deterring vandals."

Mr Jesse said a pitch-combing process was required before any football match, to clear away glass and dog dirt.

Matt Ward, a member of the Strensall Sports Association, said: "It's probably just a handful of people who are doing this vandalism, but it's just mindless."

On the issue of dog-fouling, Bill Bird, City of York Council street environment officer for Strensall, said fewer dogs were now being exercised on the field.

Both Mr Bird and Mr Ward suggested that the lack of a youth centre in Strensall was a contributory factor in the vandalism.

The parish council is seeking premises for a youth club and will discuss the issue at its next meeting.

Updated: 10:27 Thursday, October 28, 2004