Pitch battle ends in win for school

A NEW sports pitch at a school has been approved for a 12-month trial period despite objections from hundreds of neighbours over traffic and parking fears.

Yew Tree Community School in Chadderton had applied retrospectively to Oldham council to create an artificial games area to increase the sporting provision, outdoor educational facility and community use.

The new pitch will be open to junior sports groups after school until 7pm and throughout weekends and bank holidays until 1pm.

The facility had already been established without necessary planning permission.

Residents living around the Alcester Street site voiced serious concerns over the extra pressure that increased use at weekends would pile on nearby roads. A petition opposing the plans gathered 202 supporters.

Councillors voted in favour of granting approval to the pitch, with a 12-month trial period to assess the impact on parking.

Ward representative Coun Graham Shuttleworth spoke on behalf of neighbouring residents.

“This isn’t an objection to the school having an all-weather pitch. It’s there for their use and good luck to them,” he said. The issue, he said, was with the numbers of people travelling to use the pitches for community and youth football matches at weekends.

He added: “The season has started and what it will be used for on a Saturday and Sunday morning is league competition, which will attract more people than anybody has put in their report.”

He urged councillors not to grant ‘unlimited and uncontrolled’ community use.

Head of school at Yew Tree, Rais Bhatti, previously told members the pitch would be entirely for the use of FA chartered junior football clubs and as there was no lighting, it could only be used into the evenings for part of the year.

Coun John Hudson accused the committee of being more favourable towards similar applications in other wards.

He said: “I’m very cynical, I think people out there in Oldham are going to say - ‘what a shame you didn’t have the same reservations about Crompton with lights, or Uppermill with lights.’

But committee chair Steven Bashforth refuted this, responding: “In some cases it may be members on those particular occasions were more driven by the need or want to deliver these to communities that they didn’t look at the consequences of doing so.”