World Cup fever may have taken over most of the country - but there is one place where it is becoming a bit of a nuisance.

The young footballers who play on a D-shaped piece of land in the middle of a crescent of houses at Barfield Road in Muncaster, York, have not yet achieved the high standards of ball-control achieved by the stars they emulate.

Chairman of Muncaster Residents' Association, , Roy Hearn said: "We had an awful lot of complaints from residents that the children were playing football and bashing their windows with the footballs.

"We also had a problem with people driving over it and leaving great big tyre marks."

The matter will soon be addressed under the banner of The Evening Press's Proud to be York Campaign, which aims to make the city look neater, brighter and cleaner all the year round.

Subject to planning permission, the area will be transformed into a pleasant landscaped area.

Mr Hearn said: "We have allocated £750 to the park rangers.

"They are designing the D-shaped patch of grass with a view to growing shrubs so that they won't have enough room to play football there.

"We will be addressing two problems for the price of one. We thought it would be an ideal thing for that because it seemed to us that the spirit of the thing was to improve your area for residents and that is exactly what we are trying to do.

"It would have gone ahead, anyway, but this has just given us an extra incentive."

The residents' association is also working with the City of York Council to put plans together to create a drainage project which will allow the children to return to the purpose-built paddock designed to be used for football, but prone to flooding.

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