Wood Lane 3G pitch protest

National World

Around 50 people turned out for a protest rally against plans for a 3G pitch on the Wood Lane playing field in Louth at the weekend.

Transcript

00:00So we've gathered here today to send a message to East Ends District Council and MV who run

00:21this site that this field is a green space, has been now for decades, it's used by residents

00:27for a whole variety of activities from dog walking to having a kick about, frisbee, all

00:33sorts of things, just enjoying the green space, having a walk, having a picnic, all these

00:37sorts of things and we want to send that message that we don't want development on this site

00:43because we need to expand our football facilities, you'd lose a grass pitch if you put a 3G pitch

00:47on this, that limits the level of football that can be played on here and yeah we want

00:55you to expand the spaces for football in this town rather than taking away a very good one

01:00at the moment.

01:01What do we want?

01:02Green space!

01:03When do we want it?

01:04Now!

01:05What do we want?

01:06Green space!

01:07Where do we want it?

01:08Here!

01:09What do we want?

01:10Green space!

01:11When do we want it?

01:12Now!

01:13I would argue that the 3G pitch does allow a lot more training on this field but it is

01:20solely for football and at the moment this is a multi-use area and it's a green space

01:26in town which is used by children.

01:29Some children will spend hours and hours and hours per week on here for free whereas a

01:353G pitch will only be for teams.

01:39We've acknowledged there's probably a short window of time after school hours which has

01:44been allocated where children can come and play for free but if that doesn't fit in with

01:50school holidays for example when they've got more time to be on here and it doesn't

01:54fit in with their lifestyle it's very much on the terms of MV and ELDC rather than children

02:02being able to turn up and play for free whenever they want to play and also of course parents

02:08turning up with their children so we get a lot of grandparents coming in for a kickabout

02:11with their kids, a lot of parents, mums, dads coming for a kickabout with their kids.

02:16It's going to be very different if you put a 3G on here.

02:28So this is owned by East Lindsay District Council, it's a strange situation because

02:33they can't prove, they can't prove when they acquired the site so it was previously in

02:42housing stock, it was 1972 East Lindsay acquired the site, there's no written evidence of this

02:48it's just through an email trail and so on and then MV rent the site but what's then

02:56happened is MV want to try and, they want to put the 3G on here to make as much profit

03:03as possible from the site but another site would be much more preferable for the people

03:11of Louth.

03:12And I take it that you suggested or made suggestions of an alternative site is that right?

03:17Yeah when they did a viability study of the different sites they chose this one because

03:26of the changing rooms and they chose this one because they've got staff on site to manage

03:31the site and all those sorts of things but MV are very successful and they would very

03:38easily be able to turn their hand to managing an alternative site to then protect this field

03:45as a grass football pitch.

03:47So we'll assemble at the headquarters in Horncastle on the 13th of March and we will then speak

03:57at that meeting, argue against the use of this field for a 3G football pitch and hopefully

04:06make the planning committee aware of the issues and they will see sense and then we can move

04:13on and put this 3G facility on a proper site.

04:17If they go ahead with it what's the answer then?

04:21Well we will ask, residents have raised some money and we will be asking town council who

04:26are unanimously against it whether we could apply for a judicial review into that decision.

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