A PENARTH resident has criticised plans for an all-weather multi-functional hockey pitch at Stanwell School and raised concerns about parking, traffic and noise affecting surrounding streets.

However the school’s deputy head teacher Alec Lewis has said parking would be provided on school grounds during the evenings and that the school already put up green bollards on double yellow lines at the start and end of the school day in a bid to combat parking problems.

He added that the new surface would massively benefit pupils by replacing the “dilapidated” playing field and that they had also applied for noise-reducing fencing to minimise disruption to local residents.

The local resident, who did not want to be named, is concerned that if matches were to be played after school, between 7pm and 9pm, it would have a detrimental effect on surrounding streets.

He said residents of Archer Road, Salisbury Road and Stanwell Road were opposed to the plans as they would exacerbate already existing parking and traffic problems, and cause increased noise levels.

“We are just about coping with it at the moment, but something like this would push us over the edge,” he said.

He said that residents had recently been invited to an information evening about the proposals.

“They wanted to show us what colour the pitch would be,” he said.

“We are concerned about parking, excess traffic and increased noise levels as its going to be finishing around 9pm.”

Mr Lewis said that more than 120 parking spaces would be provided on-site and that pupils would benefit massively from the multi-functional surface.

As well as hockey, pupils would also be able to play football and tennis on the surface, with rugby moving to the far end of the playing field near Victoria Road and Lavernock Road.

A planning application for the “construction of a new synthetic turf pitch (STP) with associated features including lighting, fencing and new internal pedestrian access path arrangements” has been submitted to the Vale Council and is expected to be considered next month.

Mr Lewis said that as well as having an information evening they had also met with local residents who had raised concerns about parking, traffic and noise levels.

He said that he had told concerned residents that parking wouldn’t be any worse than it currently is in the day, and that in the evenings there would be spaces on school grounds to park.

He added that the pitch was much-needed for the 2,000 plus pupils that attend the school as the current grass surface was “dilapidated”.

“It’s an all-weather sand-based pitch to allow pupils to play hockey and football matches,” he said.

“There’s not one in the area and the local football and hockey clubs, as well as parents, have been very supportive of our application.”

He added that the school had also conducted a sound survey and noise assessment to study how surrounding residents would be affected, and that they had also chosen noise-reducing fencing to limit its impact.

The application is set to be decided by the Vale Council Planning Committee next month.