When I Was A Kid In Gloucester Road, Croydon

the nearest parks were miles away,

so we went to a dead end street put piles of pullovers on the street which acted as goal posts, we split into teams and had a kick about, child's play, well you would have though so, but it appears kids are a lot dumber today than they were in my day, how so? I hear you ask, well in Moray in Scotland the council placed an advertisement for a 'Street Football Coordinator' for someone to 'assist in the planning, planning promotion and delivery of the street football project' and at a salary of £19,887-a-year, it appears the kids nowadays can not work out how to make the temporary goalposts or split into teams!

how ever what is good for Scotland is frowned upon else where in the British Isles, in another act of a brain dead council gone mad, in the Glenfield area of Leicester, county council officials warned parents that they face a £100 fine if their sons and daughters play football in a dead end street, the ban has been imposed even though no one who lives in the street complained about the children playing, a little bit more of our children's lives being taken away,

sales manager Ian Fenton, 42, who has three sons, aged six, seven and 12, said: "They are treating our children and us as if we are criminals. "We want our children playing where we can see them. We moved here so that there was a nice, safe environment for them to play in, where they could interact with other children their own age. "Playing in the street is something that has gone on for generations in this country. Now the council want to take it away. It's ludicrous."

and in a much more sinister note Cheri Wright at Swindon Borough Council has threaten 4 year old children, issuing letters to them that they will be taken to court and be issued with a Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) for the games of kickabout, a criminal record that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, 8 children between the ages of 4 and 12 have received letters from Ms. Wright,

Mum Samantha Bates was horrified when her 12-year-old daughter Danielle received a letter from the council. 'When I first got this letter I said "Danielle what have you done?" because I thought the letter was just for her and she was the only one to get one,' she said. 'No cars have been damaged and there has been no police involved. So what they are being accused of is hearsay.'

in a statement Cheri Wright, defended the decision to send out the letters, what is it with council officials? why is street football encourage in one area and criminalised in others? beats me!