Kent school can't use new £700,000 sports field over neighbours' fuming complaint
Kent school can't use new £700,000 sports field over neighbours' fuming complaint
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A secondary school has been unable to use its new £700,000 sports pitch because of a council ban on the use of referees' whistles. Cornwallis Academy in Boughton Monchelsea near Maidstone, Kent has a brand new 3G artificial grass surface which it has been forbidden from using since August following complaints by neighbours.
It’s meant not only have the students been unable to use their pitch, but Cornwallis has been unable to let it out to community sides in the evenings and at weekends - cutting off an important source of income. However, Maidstone Council’s initial whistle ban as down to a policy originally advanced by the academy itself. When the school first applied for planning permission for the new pitch in 2022, a key element of the plan was that the pitch would be made available to outside sports clubs after school hours.
The council was concerned about the increased disturbance this would have on neighbours. The school could have offered to mitigate against the noise by constructing a complete acoustic barrier around the site, but instead produced a survey by experts of how much noise would be expected.
This showed that the only real disturbance would come from the shrill sound of the referee’s whistle, and not, for example, from the cheering or jeering of supporters. It therefore offered to introduce a 'no-whistle' policy at the pitch, for games played outside school hours.
There was no need for the ban to apply to school time games since neighbours already had to contend with that noise. The council accepted the proposal, granting permission in January 2023 on the condition that a 'no-whistle' policy was applied. But it never materialised and whistles were used outside school hours - with neighbours repeatedly complaining of the disturbance which now went on long past school hours and continued at weekends.
