A fed-up mother has called foul over footballers who take liberties outside her house.

For the last three years Kay Plaxton has kept a diary and filmed players as they relieved themselves before and after matches on the pitch that backs onto her Pool-in-Wharfedale home.

Mrs Plaxton, 31, said that she has to send her two children aged six and 11 to play with friends elsewhere in the village when Pool Football Club play at home - and she says her pleas for the players to cover up have been ignored.

"It's disgusting that I can't let my kids play out at a weekend when the footballers are playing. I have an 11-year-old daughter and she doesn't want to see that sort of thing. Have they no shame doing it in front of a young girl?

"I have a mate of mine with a young kid who won't visit me at a weekend because she's so frightened of what she'll see. I've even had the police involved."

Mrs Plaxton said that a well-used public footpath winds past the football pitch, and she claims that players have been seen urinating near the children's playground. A youths' skateboard park is due to be built in that area later this year. Pensioners' flats also overlook the pitch.

"I have a diary of every time they take liberties - it's become quite comprehensive after all this time. I have even filmed a couple of them doing it.

"It's not just having to put up with all that, it's the language they use," she said. "The effing and blinding is awful. If I sat in the middle of their pitch and peed, they wouldn't be happy, would they? Some of them do it with their back to you, but others don't bother.

"We have a problem with youths in the village doing things like this in bus shelters, but the players aren't setting an example to younger ones."

And it's not just the players at Pool who are angering the Plaxtons and their neighbours - visiting players and even the referees have been known to answer a call of nature.

Daughter Rebecca, 11, added: "I am sick and tired of being evicted from my own garden. It's disgusting what they do down there." Mrs Plaxton, of Wharfe Crescent, said that toilets were just a short walk away in the village hall.

At Monday night's Pool Parish Council meeting in the village hall, a deputation on behalf of Mrs Plaxton was led by Pool 2020 community group chairman Bernard Mitchinson. He called on the council's Recreation Ground Management Committee (RGMC) members to get the matter sorted out as they were the landowners.

Ted Joce, a parish councillor and RGMC chairman, said he had spoken to the police and Mrs Plaxton on this matter and that he was working on a scheme to solve the problems.

And Councillor Ailsa Bearpark suggested hiring a portable toilet on match days.

In a letter to the meeting, Otley Police said that they were dealing with the matter and that letters were in the process of being sent to both the football club and RGMC informing them that players were breaking the law by indecently exposing themselves and using foul language. An officer from Otley was looking into the matter.

Secretary of Pool FC Peter Wilkinson said the club had issued memos to individual team managers, asking players to avoid being indiscreet - but also hoped to conceal players' modesty by putting up 'windbreak' screens on match days. He said: "We are aware of it and we are looking at it. I personally have made it known to everyone concerned verbally, and I gave each of the managers a memo to watch for this situation."

Mr Wilkinson said running back to the changing rooms at half-time would be impractical, as they are too far away, and the player concerned would have to be given a key and trusted to safely lock the building afterwards.

He said seeing Mrs Plaxton's evidence for himself could lead to the culprits being caught and reprimanded. Mr Wilkinson fears the message may not be getting through to all the players on visiting teams, and said he cannot personally police every match.