42ft-tall cricket ‘ball strike fence’ approved to protect new homes at Shrewsbury development
Homes at a housing development in Shrewsbury will be protected by a 13m-tall fence to stop them being hit by monster sixes from a nearby cricket ground.
It has taken a while for the ‘ball strike fencing’ condition for land at the former bowling green at Albert Road to be agreed after Sport England raised concents at an earlier stage.
But now Shropshire Council has passed ‘condition 8’ which called for the fence to be in place before the occupation of 12 new homes and 14 supported living flats on the former site of a social club.
Background documents revealed that Sport England had stumped Bromford Developments’ previous effort to get the condition approved after raising concerns about how the fence would be maintained.
Sport England has now told the council that details of the design and construction of a 13m-tall net meets recommendations to mitigate the ball strike risk.
It has also been agreed that the developer will pay the council £2,000 for on-going maintenance, which will be passed to Sentinel Sports and Social Club to carry out a maintenance programme.
“Given the above, Sport England does not wish to object to the details being approved, subject to full implementation and management and maintenance thereafter in accordance with the approved details,” a spokesperson for the sport watchdog told the council.
