Plans to put up floodlights at a tennis court in Hove have divided a community.<\/p>\n
St Ann\u2019s Tennis applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for planning permission to put up 15 lighting columns \u2013 26ft or 8 metres tall \u2013 and two single-storey storage buildings in St Ann\u2019s Well Gardens.<\/p>\n
The courts are on the corner of Nizells Avenue and Somerhill Road \u2013 and the plans are due to be decided by the council\u2019s Planning Committee next week.<\/p>\n
A report to the committee backs the plan and said that the council had received 54 comments in support but 63 objections.<\/p>\n
The report also said that conditions should be attached if planning permission is granted, limiting use of the floodlights to between 4pm and 9pm daily.<\/p>\n
Objectors had concerns about the location of the storage buildings as well as potential harm to bats, birds, badgers and insects \u2013 and the prospect of light pollution.<\/p>\n
When the plans were submitted, an objection was lodged by the three ward councillors \u2013 Birgit Miller, Trevor Muten and Jackie O\u2019Quinn who has since stood down from the council.<\/p>\n
They said that the wider community had not been consulted about the plans, just tennis club members and the chair of the Friends of St Ann\u2019s Well Gardens.<\/p>\n
After a request by the ward councillors, two public meetings were organised but no conclusions were reached to address neighbours\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n
The councillors said: \u201cThe main concerns of nearby residents are the lights and the timing of the lights as it is argued that 15 tennis court floodlights will have a negative impact on valuable wildlife habitats and on nearby residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city council has installed bat and wildlife-friendly lighting in the park with low-energy shielded lights which switch off at 8pm \u2018to cut out light pollution and protect biodiversity in the park\u2019, as stated in council documentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreviously Goldsmid ward councillors were heavily involved in the consultation with the environment team about these lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time of 8pm was decided on after much discussion and the need to respect the council\u2019s planning policy regarding \u2018dark skies\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters said that the design minimised light spill, provided more options for tennis and would improve safety in the area.<\/p>\n
An anonymous supporter, whose details were redacted by the council, said: \u201cOn the idea that the lights are \u2018not needed\u2019 because people have managed without them: that might have been true in the past but it doesn\u2019t reflect how people live now.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of us finish work at around 5pm to 6pm and in winter it\u2019s already dark by 4pm. Without lighting, the courts are basically unusable on weekdays for a large part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s Planning Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 2pm on Wednesday (5 August). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to put up floodlights at a tennis court in Hove have divided a community. St Ann\u2019s Tennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-726801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}