LEISURE chiefs are to spend £600,000 replacing a park football pitch with a petanque rink, a skatepark and four mini soccer areas.

The largest pitch at Veracity Recreation Ground in Sholing, Southampton, will make way for the new facilities.

The project has sparked anger among footballers who play at the park. They claim the number of pitches around the city is decreasing.

Last year the Daily Echo joined soccer players in a successful campaign to save the city's threatened pitches.

Richard Ember, secretary of the Southampton based Orchard Homes League, said: "We really thought that they (the council) were prepared to support local football when they decided not to proceed with their proposed pitch closures just over 12 months ago.

"As a local I can only imagine the anticipation of the Woolston and Sholing people at getting a petanque rink. Give it six months and it will be a disused weed bed."

City of Southampton Sunday Football League chairman Terry Windebank said: "It's a good idea except that we are losing a football pitch. The council sold off a pitch at Millbrook Rec last year and built a new one that is too small for league matches.

"We've lost pitches at Mansel Park after the changing rooms were destroyed and next year new sewer pipes are going to be laid through Riverside Park, meaning two more lost there."

A Southampton City Council spokesman said the new-look Veracity would also be a training ground for Southampton Football Club's junior players.

He added: "As far as we know there are 30 pitches in the city and at weekends only 70 per cent of them are played on.

"Of the three pitches at the Veracity ground, only two of them are really used."