A SCHOOL playing field in Poole could be transformed into a state-of-the-art community 3G football arena.
BCP Council, in association with MUGA UK, intend to introduce a floodlit 3G football pitch facility and associated works on green land at St. Aldhelm’s Academy and Rossmore Leisure Centre.
The proposed development would provide a training and competition facility for local community football clubs. It would be used by the school during the day and accessible to affiliated football clubs, individuals and targeted groups during evenings and weekends.
Funded through the Football Association (FA) Foundation, the scheme would also see the installation of sports fencing, floodlighting, a spectator area, access paths, wildlife bund and additional cycle shelters.
The artificial pitch itself would also have multiple markings to allow for maximum football use and benefit. For example, while the 100 x 64m pitch would cater for traditional 11v11 matches, it could also be adapted for smaller 9v9, 7v7 and 5v5 matches – enabling several matches to take place at one time.
While the proposal will result in the loss of the existing grass playing field, planners say overall usage will not decrease as the new facility will result in “greater capacity utilisation across the playing season”.
Additionally, the site’s adjacent grass football pitch will remain untouched.
A football development programme is also planned to be implemented at the Herbert Avenue site to deliver FA programmes including coaching, referee training, volunteering, women/girls football and disability football.
Plans were submitted by the council on July 15 and, at present, no objections have been filed.
In its concluding statement, planners said: “The proposed change of the pitch from natural grass to artificial grass will cause some increase in traffic at certain times however this will be mitigated through the diversification of the Leisure Centre’s sports activities timetable and the promotion of sustainable travel options.
“The proposal provides the opportunity for an increase in sports participation and an improvement in healthy lifestyle, objectives that will be complemented by the promotion of sustainable travel.”
The application is live and can be viewed by searching APP/22/00970/F in BCP Council’s online planning portal.
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