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A South Ribble community football club has been told it can extend the hours its pitches are played on – in spite of claims from nearby residents that even the current operating times are spoiling their quality of life.
Lostock St. Gerard’s FC has pledged to work with locals to address their concerns, which include expletive-laden noise drowning out the peace and quiet of their own homes and gardens.
However, councillors brokered a further compromise between the club and its neighbours after hearing of their dread at the thought of the increase in playing and training time initially proposed.
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More than 30 objections were received to the plans and, speaking on behalf of several residents living adjacent to the Wateringpool Lane facility, Claire Westbury likened match time to “someone screaming down your earhole” – and said the words being yelled were often choice.
“[There is] loads of swearing – and it’s really difficult to cope with. If you just want to spend time in your garden, you find yourself having to go in your house and shut your windows [instead].
“I’ve got two kids [and] you can clearly hear what the footballers are saying – so I just say [to my children]…‘We don’t say those words in our house.’
“We have to accept that lads get passionate about football – [but] If the proposed extension goes ahead, there’s no respite for us,” explained Ms. Westbury, adding that the problem was exclusive to adult men’s games.
Another neighbour, Tom Cullen, said while he was supportive of the club, he deserved “the right to peace when I come back from work”.
“Shouting extremely loud…can be heard not only within my garden, but within my house as well. It’s not only the noise itself, but the nature of the noise. We regularly get foul, abusive, sexist, derogatory language,” he said.
In its application for the extended hours, the club set out a series of “mitigation measures” – including playing only under-18s matches on the pitch closest to the nearest residential properties. It said it would also issue players and managers with a “code of conduct”.
Steven Donaldson, representing the club, said: “We do understand that we do have neighbours – and we have listened to [them].
“We do want to work with our local community and we…understand the frustrations that people [have].”
South Ribble planning officers had recommended the committee approve the lengthened hours in full – but initially only for a trial period of one year, in order to assess whether the changes led to complaints from those living nearby. That involved Monday and Friday evenings being added to the times the pitches could be used – and the hours already permitted on other weekdays lengthened by 60 minutes from 5.30pm until 9pm.
On Saturdays and Sundays, the club wanted the current 10am-2pm operating times extended to 9am until 6pm, although Mr. Donaldson stressed that the times were “worst case scenarios” and were unlikely to be taken advantage of in full.
Amid concern that the council’s environmental health team objected to the length of some of the extensions, committee members settled on approving a 4pm finish time at the weekend – and gave the green light to the rest of the request.
Committee member Chris Lomax said the club was a “brilliant community asset”, but added that he understood the “issues” raised by residents.
His colleague Cllr Pete Pillinger – who proposed a 3pm finish time at the weekend – said: “What you’ve got on one side is the voluntary participation of the football community imposing something on the people who live there who haven’t got the option to do anything except move away or be away [rom home] at the time [of the matches].”
The permission granted will run for 12 months.
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