LAND next to a community sports club has gone up for auction – raising concerns about emergency access to the playing fields.

British Waterways has put an acre of land up for sale next to Battyeford Sporting Club’s playing fields on Huddersfield Road in Mirfield.

The auction is on September 15 at Elland Road in Leeds and the guide price is £15,000 to £20,000.

A gate leading onto the land for sale is currently used for ambulance access in case of an accident on the playing fields.

Club secretary Howard Sullivan told the Examiner he is concerned about legal rights of access to the land.

He said: “We have 330-odd players at the club and thankfully there has only been one occasion that we’ve had to bring an ambulance over but if we couldn’t have access to the land that way there would be serious implications.

“We also use that gate for access for the lawn mower to cut the fields. I didn’t even realise that the land was up for sale and it has come as a real shock.

“Kirklees Council should have given us information about what is happening.”

The council owns the playing fields between Huddersfield Road and the River Calder and is responsible for overseeing rights of access issues.

The Examiner asked Kirklees Council whether or not the sports club had rights of access.

A council spokesman did not answer the specific question, but said: “The general rule is that any change of ownership wouldn’t change the legal status of the right of way.”

Mirfield Conservative councillor Martyn Bolt said he couldn’t see why anyone would buy the land.

He said: “I wouldn’t pay £15 for it never mind £15,000.

“Some of the land was previously owned by British Waterways but sold to Kirklees Council but this bit of land was missed out.

“It is rubbish land and it floods and you can’t really do that much with it.

“Kirklees Council and British Waterways need to get it straight about who owns what.”

The councillor said he too thought there could be issues with rights of access to the playing fields.

He said: “I would have thought that the sports club would have accrued rights of way over the land by now and that you couldn’t really stop 400 or so young people going across the land.”

A British Waterways spokesperson said the main surveyor dealing with the site was on holiday and she only had brief details.

She said: “The land at Battyeford Playing Fields has been identified by British Waterways as being surplus to requirements and is being auctioned off by Eddisons Property Auction on Thursday 15 September 2011.

“The money raised will be reinvested back into looking after the nation’s 200-year old canal network.”