Basildon Council has been accused of “ripping off” local Sunday League teams after it emerged it charges the most for football pitch hire in south Essex.

An Echo investigation has revealed it charges hundreds of pounds more than neighbouring local authorities for the annual use of public pitch.

Members of the Basildon and District Sunday League expressed their anger at the situation at their meeting of clubs this week.

Mick Lee, league secretary, said: “Our members asked us if we could talk to the council about this.

“But when we’ve tried that in the past, it didn’t want to know. When we said we thought it was charging too much it said, ‘if you don’t want to use the pitches, don’t use them’. It was a case of like it or lump it.”

Basildon Council currently charges Sunday league teams £956 a season to hire a local-authority owned pitch with changing facilities and showers – the minimum requirement to compete under FA rules.

In Southend it costs £930, Castle Point Council charges £683, but the cheapest option is in Rochford, where teams only have to pay £515.

At the height of its popularity, Basildon and District Sunday League had 72 teams playing in six divisions.

But that has now dwindled to 38 teams playing in four divisions, and Lee, who is also manager of Durham FC, thinks numbers will continue to decline if more good quality, affordable pitches are not made available.

He said: “We pay nearly £1,000 a year for our pitch at Holy Cross and use it no more than eight times a year. And if a game is cancelled for any reason, we don’t get a rebate from the council.

“A couple of seasons ago we only used our pitch three times because of poor weather. It is not fair system at the moment and we do think it is ripping us off.”

Malcolm Binstead, chairman of the Sceptre Sunday League, which has 103 teams in ten divisions across Basildon, Southend and Castle Point, called the situation “clearly unfair”.

He said he would be prepared to sit down with council representatives and other league chairmen so they could all discuss the issue.

He added: “The question that teams playing in Basildon will probably ask is ‘what are we getting for our money that those in Rochford are not?’. And the answer to that question is probably nothing at all.”

Kevin Blake, cabinet member for leisure at Basildon Council, said its charges are competitive and similar to those in Southend and Chelmsford.

He added: “Our charges reflect the amount of work and maintenance that is required to keep the facilities to a good standard throughout the season.”