Council hits back on Magpies game

Newcastle's pitch was deemed playable, but the game was still called off

Newcastle City Council has angrily responded to criticism from Newcastle United and Charlton following the late postponement of Wednesday's match.

"Had the club consulted the council we would have stressed that the sensible solution would have been to go ahead," said chief executive Ian Stratford.

"The City Council only found out about the postponement from the media. In my view this is wholly unsatisfactory."

The match was called off by club safety officers 25 minutes before kick-off.

The pitch had been deemed playable by the match referee and in the wake of the postponement both clubs complained to Newcastle City Council, claiming it did not prepare adequately.

But Stratford added: "I understand that Northumbria Police did not request a postponement and the City Council was not consulted when the decision was announced publicly.

"At this time conditions were no worse than they had been two hours previously."

And he said that playing the match would have given the council the opportunity to ensure that they could make the area around St James' Park safe after the heavy snow shower.

Stratford said: "With the fans safely inside the stadium enjoying the match the council's intention was to deploy gritters during the two-hour period to clear the snow and ice from the paths and roads thus ensuring a safer journey home.

"The council's gritting fleet is continuously monitored using a vehicle tracking system.

"I can confirm from records all primary routes were gritted continuously in accordance with surface conditions until the rush hour period where volume of traffic and rapidly worsening weather hampered progress."

Charlton chief executive Peter Varney said: "The ground staff did a great job getting all the snow off the pitch.

"But what was going on outside the ground was quite unacceptable. A normal 10-minute drive was taking an hour.

"None of the main routes in nor any of the roads around the ground had been gritted - there were cars sliding past us, cars on the pavement and being abandoned.

"You had to see it to believe it. There was just no gritting at all - the roads were like ice-rinks.

"The gritting lorries appeared at 2230 GMT, and for that situation to happen in a major city like Newcastle is just totally unacceptable."

Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd revealed the club spent £100,000 in their attempt to get the game played.

We can only control what goes on in the stadium - we can't do anything about the approach roads Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd

"We can only control what goes on in the stadium - we can't do anything about the approach roads.

"The roads took a turn for the worse. It took me an hour to drive three miles and I didn't see any gritters."

Northumbria Police confirmed it was a second snow shower at 1900 GMT that led to the match being postponed - the game was eventually called off at 1920 GMT.

Newcastle Match Commander, Superintendent Steve Storey, said: "I neither advised or requested the club to postpone the game.

"However I can understand why they made their decision. It is unfortunate that this was taken so near to kick-off.

"I can appreciate the frustrations of the fans, particularly those from Charlton Athletic who travelled on coaches from London and never actually made it to the ground."

Referee Mike Dean had cleared the game to go ahead after a pitch inspection, but was later overruled.

"My jurisdiction is the green bit, and that was playable, but when the safety says there's a problem outside, I can't say there isn't."

A club spokesman added: "The safety of spectators and players is extremely important bearing in mind the overall duty of care under health and safety legislation and the ground safety certificate.

"It was unfortunate that the match had to be called off. However, this decision was not taken lightly and it was done with the best intentions for all concerned."