Pitches plan a step closer

Shrewsbury Town Football club is a step closer to getting permission for improvements to its community pitches at the £15 million New Meadow.

The club wants to scrap a proposed children’s grass pitch.

Instead it wants to build an all-weather floodlit rubber-crumb pitch next to the nearly complete 10,000-seater stadium in Oteley Road.

It has also applied for revised planning permission to use the facilities until 10.30pm, seven days a week, so it can compete against other leisure centres, and move the changing rooms.

Borough councillors are set to give the scheme the go-ahead at a meeting next week.

A report drawn up for members says current restrictions mean the floodlit-pitches could only be used until 9pm.

The club says junior grass pitches and a hard-surface multisport area would have been “poorly used” and that the revised plans for rubber-crumb five-a-side courts and a seven-a-side synthetic pitch are a “significant improvement”.

Sport England has suggested increasing the size of the seven-a-side pitch so it can be used for competitions. The pitch currently proposed by Shrewsbury Town is below the FA’s minimum specified length.

Two objection letters have been sent to planning bosses highlighting concerns over increased noise, lighting and traffic congestion and the likelihood of vandalism at neighbouring properties.

And there has been one of support saying the amended plans are an improvement.

“The extended hours of operation proposed is considered to be in line with other establishments both within and outside the borough,” the report says.