New sports facilities at a Holywood grammar school are to be allowed to open to the community and offer extended opening hours despite objections from local residents.
At the recent meeting of Ards and North Down Council Planning Committee, elected members allowed Sullivan Upper School, Belfast Road, to alter conditions made on its previous approval, extend its hours and open it up to community use. On a vote eight councillors were in support of the application, two against and three abstained. The committee also agreed a site management plan with the school.
In 2015 councillors approved a full sized artificial grass hockey pitch, with associated facilities and replacement car parking, replacing the old hockey pitch with a higher spec on the same location.
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The plan also involved the replacement of sports changing rooms and the addition of a new gymnasium and dance studio on the existing pavilion. A related application for six 15 metre high flood lighting poles, as well as additional planting to the pitch perimeter, was also approved.
The approval came with conditions on opening, including that the facilities could only be used between 9am and 8pm Monday to Friday, between 9am and 6pm on Saturdays, and no use on a Sunday or public holiday.
This week Ards and North Down councillors changed the opening hours to between 8am and 10pm Monday to Friday, 8.30am and 6pm on Saturdays, and between midday and 5pm on Sundays, including the use of floodlights in those hours.
Another condition, that the sports facilities and hockey pitch were solely for the use of Sullivan Upper, has also been scrapped. The original condition in the planning report stated the facilities “shall not be used at any time by any other organisation or any event or purpose other than those associated with operation and function of the school”.
The planning report added this was to “safeguard the living conditions of residents in adjoining and nearby properties”. The latest report however states that Upper Sullivan’s request to scrap this condition “follows many other schools for example such as Regent House School, Newtownards and Bangor Grammar School in making their facilities available to the wider community”.
26 letters of objection from eight addresses were received by the council, including a letter from Alex Easton MLA. Issues raised included use of the pitch, commercial gain, noise and light pollution, and an increase in traffic and parking.
A local resident told the committee: “The noise from hockey balls hitting a goal or fence is unique, it is like a gunshot, and it generates a high level of noise much louder than rugby or football. Safeguarding the living standards of local residents is an important interest addressed by the planning conditions.
“These are carte blanche applications, so broad they would permit a hockey pitch for hockey up to 100 percent of the time, with continual practice into six sets of hockey goals simultaneously.”
She added: “Our homes are a place of refuge and safety, many work from home, and these applications will create real significant harm to our daily living conditions and will decimate the respite we have there. It will mean we cannot open our windows to ventilate our homes any day of the year because of the intrusive noise, protecting our vulnerable and elderly.
“It will drive a coach and horses through the safeguarding of our living conditions. It would be perverse to grant approval for benefits of local community use when the very people living near the pitch suffer unreasonable and disproportionate noise and disturbance, while the school pockets the profits.”
A council officer told the committee: “While these excellent sporting facilities have greatly improved the sporting and recreational facilities available to pupils, the present conditions attached to the 2015 approval essentially prohibits the local community, including youth clubs, sports clubs, individuals etc from taking advantage of the facilities.
“Sullivan Upper has always been part of the local community, and various facilities are already made for use by local clubs, community groups and individuals.”
She added: “Community use of the new facilities is to be provided as part of an approved project under the school enhancement programme, and had been a focus of the original business case to the Department of Education.”
She said: “It is evident there is a demand for these facilities by the community. Because of the current planning restrictions, the school has had to turn down requests for usage from local and national hockey teams, local young people’s football clubs, Irish dancing clubs, local pilates and yogas classes, and a stage and drama school.”
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