SOCCER-MAD Mayor Sandie Webb is preparing to combine council business with pleasure as she follows the England team's fortunes in the Euro 2000 championships.

Coun Webb, the newly-installed Mayor of Chippenham, will be travelling to Holland to watch England's opening match against Portugal in Eindhoven on Monday.

While there she will meet the mayor of Eindhoven in a bid to boost Chippenham's campaign for more playing fields in the town.

We will be discussing the playing fields they have in Holland and the facilities in the villages and towns, said Coun Webb, who has made improving footballing facilities for youngsters one of the goals of her mayoral year.

They have plans for improvement similar to our campaign to get more playing fields for our youngsters in Chippenham.

Coun Webb and her husband Doug, who is a former chairman of Chippenham Town Football Club, returned on Tuesday from a four-day trip watching England's final warm up match away in Malta.

The couple have travelled to see every England away game since Moldova in September 1996.

Rather than picking somewhere in particular to go on holiday we follow England wherever they play, we get to see a great many interesting places we wouldn't normally visit, she said.

The Webbs have also booked places to watch England's following two group matches, against Germany and Romania, at Charleroi, Belgium, before flying back to Britain for the Beat Retreat parade at Basil Hill Barracks on June 17.

The following day she will visit Jennings Fair in Island Park, where disabled children get an hour's free rides in the morning.

The fair is part of Chippenham carnival taking place that evening, which Coun Webb will not be attending should England reach the quarter finals.

If England reach the quarter finals it will be played on the same day and we will be going back to Holland or Belgium to watch the match, said Coun Webb.

The carnival starts at 6.30pm and the match is not until 8pm so should not affect attendances for the carnival. It should put everyone in a party mood for the evening.

Elsewhere in Chippenham, pub managers and owners are predicting a bumper swell of patrons throughout the European Championships.

Each of the recent friendlies played by England has been broadcast on big screens here and we have had about 250-300 more people in, said Wayne Bentley, owner of the Sir Audley Arms, Audley Road, Chippenham.

If England go all the way to the final it could put over £2,500 on my takings.

The Rose and Crown, in the Market Place, is offering to slash the prices of drinks in the five minutes following each goal scored by England while on the outskirts of town at the King Alfred, Malmesbury Road, European Championship T-shirts are up for grabs in competitions to be run at the pub.

We expect to be packed and it can only add to the atmosphere in the town, said Jill Buswell, one of the King Alfred's managers.