YOUNG footballers are having to travel to a college four miles away to train because of a council's green initiative.

Bowburn Boys FC, which runs teams for six to 12-year-olds including girls, is having problems because grass on a former cricket pitch on the village's playing fields, that it used for training on Wednesday nights, has been left to grow under Durham City Council's bio-diversity plan.

A nearby football pitch is used by an adult team, so the club has had to hold training sessions at Durham Sixth Form Centre, four miles away.

The club was formed three years ago and its under-nines team has won promotion to the Russell Foster League and its under-tens girls team won the Durham County Council Girls League.

Club secretary Alan Wilson said: "The grass is about 2ft tall now and some of the players would disappear in it.

"We'd lose half the kids in there now. If you lose a ball it takes ten minutes to find it.''

He said the Mayor of Durham's cricket club used to play matches on the field, "but because the kids want to use it, they have just stopped the grass cutting".

Mr Wilson added that having to train at the sixth form centre meant an eight-mile round trip for several cars.

A council spokesman said the club did not formally hire the cricket field, which was no longer used for matches, but had been allowed to use the site.

The grass had been allowed to grow under the council's bio-diversity plan to encourage wildlife.