
Shawley School’s planning application for artificial grass pitches
It has been well over a year since we first reported on Shawley School’s plans to build three 5-aside artificial grass pitches on the field behind the school. They would overlay a larger pitch for under 12’s.

The concerns raised at that time were:
- The lack of a realistic transport and parking plan
- Restrictions on use by teenagers and adults
- Hours of operation, light pollution, noise and disturbance, operational control of the site – all issues raised in the Council-commissioned Environmental Report
- The impact on wildlife in the area.
Our councillors had met with representatives from the school to raise these concerns, but there has been a limited response from the school to these issues. All went quiet for over a year and now the planning application will come to the Planning Committee for decision on 4th September.
Councillor Nick Harrison summarises residents’ concerns as follows:
HOURS OF OPERATION
The hours of operation of the site may have been reduced slightly (closing time of 8:00pm rather than 9:00pm Monday to Thursday, no use on Friday evenings, and some reduction at weekends), but there would still be 27 hours of operation beyond school hours. This is still too long.
NOISE & DISRUPTION – IMPACT ON AMENITY
The impact to local residents from noise would be unacceptable. It was recommended last year that further work should be carried out on the impact of peak noise, but this does not appear to have taken place.
Acoustic barriers have been suggested but not taken up and no information on the visual impact of such on neighbours and children in the classroom.
LIGHTING
Whilst this has been amended in the course of the application, there is still likely to be sky glow that is likely to appreciably alter the character of the area. There needs to be further consideration in terms of both visual amenity and potential impact on protected species.
COMMUNITY USE MANAGEMENT PLAN
The school have not engaged in any realistic way to put forward proposals to minimise neighbours’ concerns since the initial application from last December 2022.
Whilst a community use plan would be a condition for approval there is still a concern that ongoing enforcement of issues such as hours of operation, noise control and anti-social behaviour would be difficult.

USE BY JUVENILES AND ADULTS
Although the pitches are “targeted” at 12’s and under there are no proposals to definitely prevent use by older children or adults.
NUMBERS ON SITE
Although the transport presentation is in terms of smaller 7v7 or 5v5 matches, the greatest impact is likely to be in youth sports clubs having a large number of overlapping games, with rolling substitutes, and many children and youths participating simultaneously in training activities.
Our understanding based on discussions with local youth football clubs is that league matches will be at weekends – Saturday and Sunday mornings between 9am and 12 noon, with the numbers suggested. However, training sessions during the week which could be every night, could involve the pitch being split into two or three sections with up to 20 children participating in each.
This will substantially impact noise, comings and goings etc, and it may prove impossible to limit attendance to 12’s and under. An enforceable limit of numbers, including both children, officials and parents/ spectators is required.
TRANSPORT AND PARKING
The Travel Plan for out of hours use seems to be expecting a significant number of the children to be from the local area, walking to the site. This is not how youth football clubs work in practice. Children come from quite a wide area to join a club and to play and train. The issue and numbers could be significantly larger than the application suggests.
The earlier documents have championed the use of the school playground for parking and discussed overflow arrangements.
Parking during school opening and closing has always been an issue in Shawley Way. It could become considerably worse should this application be approved.
DRAINAGE ISSUES
There have been a number of local flooding events where water has flowed off the school field and has caused flooding of properties on the bend in Shawley Way. The impact of the artificial grass pitches has not been assessed.
In summary, whilst there is support for improved sports facilities for the children at the school, the out-of-hours use and hiring out to all and sundry remains a real concern for many. Not much at all has changed from the original planning application and our Councillors will be raising these concerns at the Planning Committee Meeting.