The future of a group providing children’s football coaching sessions is in doubt after residents of a local housing estate complained about noise and damage to the grass they play on.

Olly Hancock and Ashleigh Atwal are now fighting to keep their training sessions running after complaints from anonymous neighbours.

Complaints include the fact that the sessions, which take place on a park in the centre of the estate, “churn up” the grass, that the noise of whistles and children playing on a Saturday morning is “too loud”, and that parents bringing their children to the sessions are blocking driveways when they park.

Olly and Ashleigh, who run Langley Soccer School on the Langley Country Park estate in Derbyshire, only learned about the complaints through a letter sent to all residents by the estate’s management company.

Speaking to Derbyshire Live, Olly said: “You go through a range of emotions. Are we going to have to stop? What are we going to say to the kids? As a resident myself, even without the football school, how can anyone complain about children enjoying playing football on our park?”

Langley Country Park is a new-build estate in Mickleover that was completed around four years ago.

It is looked after by Residential Management Group (RMG) which says it has received ‘several’ complaints from residents about children playing on the park.

However, many residents have voiced their support for the little footballers, saying that they enjoy the sound of youngsters enjoying themselves playing and that those complaining should “get a grip”.

Olly, 34, and Ashleigh, 33, founded their soccer school in January 2022 having both lived on the estate and seen dozens of children playing on the park on Saturday mornings. Both with backgrounds in football and coaching, they saw it as a perfect opportunity to bring the community together and offer a more exciting weekend football structure for the kids.

Everything was going smoothly until a letter was sent to residents by RMG about the separate issue of transferring the management of the land to the local residents.

It said: “We were made aware that a local football team is practising on the open space area. We have not been contacted by anyone asking for consent to use the area and we understand from complaints by residents that the grass was very churned up and so we were asked to try and stop it.

“Whilst we can understand that this is an open area and it looks like the ideal place for such activities and we do not want to stop children from playing any sport, if any damage was caused to the area it is very likely that any repairs would need to be paid for by you as residents through the service charge.”

Olly and Ashleigh say that it was the first time they had been made aware of the complaints, despite the letter referencing an email that had apparently been sent to them by RMG. The pair contacted RMG and were forwarded the email. It made reference to the problems, saying: “As this field is owned by the management company, I was just wondering who it was that you gained consent from to use this area?”

In despair, the pair drafted up a response letter which they posted on the local Langley Country Park Facebook group, explaining the situation to people who were unaware. It said: “We’d like to apologise to the residents that have raised concerns. It was never our intention to cause any issues to any resident. We agree with the points raised and want to work with residents to come up with solutions to any worries or issues. We are very approachable and would welcome conversations on how we can satisfy the residents whilst allowing the children to maintain their Saturday morning sessions.”

They were met with resounding support from locals. One person said: “It’s so lovely to even walk past and hear and see the local children enjoying themselves and learning valuable skills.”

Another said: “The complaints don’t make sense since there’s kids playing football every day on the park regardless.”

Someone else quipped: “People complaining about this need to get a grip” and a fourth added: “I despair at people, I really do. “

Olly has responded to RMG and is currently awaiting a response.

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