Bradford Council’s decision to call off all football matches on their pitches is a more thorough process than many people think.

Area parks and landscape manager Graeme Atkins does not, for example, merely look outside his office in Peel Park – as some suspect – and decide on a blanket postponement.

He said: “I want to explain how we come to this big decision because it is not something that is taken very lightly. It is a massive misconception about me just looking out of my office window.”

Atkins, who is also a Barclays Premier League assistant referee, has twice made the blanket postponement decision this season but the first occasion was on the weekend of September 6-7.

“In my 30-plus years with the local authority, I have never known us take this action so early in the season,” he said.

As to the mechanisms that Atkins and his colleagues go through to arrive at the blanket-postponement decision, he revealed: “As a grounds maintenance department (gardeners to the layman), we are constantly checking the weather forecast and do have a direct line to the meteorological office, who, during periods of severe weather, constantly update us with the progress on all weather fronts and advise us of the likely outcome on these fronts.

“In the week prior to September 6-7 we were receiving severe weather warnings daily, updating us on the very heavy rain we were getting.

“As the week progressed, we realised that we were going to have a problem. The pitches were already suffering from previous bad weather, which was making it very difficult to either cut or mark them out.

“By Wednesday, we began to put our blanket-postponement plan into action.

“We have four area managers – one in Keighley, one in Shipley and two in Bradford – who, as part of their jobs, look after all the sports grounds in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

“We begin by inspecting a large section of pitches across the whole district and then meet up (usually at Shipley Town Hall) on Wednesday afternoon to discuss our findings, which on this occasion were very bleak. Even at this time of the week the pitches were heavily waterlogged.”

Atkins stressed, however, that the plug is not pulled this early in the week as weather can change dramatically.

“The next step in this process is to monitor the situation for the next 24 hours and again report back to each other, normally via telephone,” he said.

“This happened and by mid-afternoon Thursday, as there was no improvement in the weather, a blanket postponement was fast approaching.

“With this in mind, I then contact local league secretaries to advise them of the situation and the probable outcome.

“This includes all sports, not just football, and what was unusual about this situation was that the grounds closure was going to include cricket pitches as well.

“Friday morning came and, after a short discussion and again no improvement in the weather, we made the decision to close all grounds.

“The next stage of the process is again for me to ring the leagues and advise them of our decision. It has to be said that they were all very supportive and fully understood the reason behind our decision.

“I then contact the press to ask them to announce or publish something to try and get the message across to as many of our users as possible to save unnecessary journeys.”

Atkins concluded: “I hope you can see that there is a pretty comprehensive process adhered to when dealing with this situation and I have to stress the decision is made because of the weather we had been having and the conditions the pitches were in as a result of the ‘monsoon’ conditions we were experiencing.

“Hopefully this helps people understand how we operate during periods of inclement weather and I can say, thankfully on occasions, the outcome of this process is not always blanket closure.”