TWO Southampton MP's have once again thrown their weight behind a campaign to save some of Southampton's football pitches from closure.

Four pitches - two in Green Park, Millbrook, and two at the Sports Centre, Bassett - could be shut having been included in a package of cost-cutting measures in Southampton City Council's 2008/09 budget plans.

The council believes there are sufficient facilities elsewhere in the city to cope with the current levels of football being played at grass-roots level.

In a bid to fight the cutbacks, which will save the council £20,000, local league officials have re-launched their Save Our Soccer campaign.

The campaign was first launched four years ago to oppose plans to axe pitches across the city.

Labour MPs Alan Whitehead and John Denham both played a part in successfully fighting those proposals.

Now the re-launched campaign will go into overdrive - starting tomorrow when local league officials and players gather for a publicity photo-call for the campaign in Green Park - ahead of the decisive meeting next month when the draft budget is presented to the council for approval.

Saints fan Mr Whitehead will also attend while Mr Denham hopes to join him at Green Park.

Southampton Test MP Mr Whitehead, said: "We should not be closing down football pitches.

"Facilities in Southampton are already stretched and increasingly teams are having to find pitches outside of the city. If you close down a few more pitches, everything else will decrease accordingly.

"It means a number of teams simply won't be able to play, then bits of leagues will disappear and then whole leagues will deteriorate because teams have not got anywhere else to play."

Southampton Itchen MP Mr Denham added: "I wish we had a council that want to increase the number of people playing sport, not coming up with ways of providing less of it."

Full story: See today's Daily Echo.