Aviemore is set for "pitched" battle
HIGHLAND Council has been accused by nearby residents of moving the goalposts after submitting new plans for a synthetic community football pitch in Aviemore with 16-metre-high floodlighting and a tall boundary fence.
The proposal now taking shape next to the £12 million primary school at Muirton has caused widespread concern among local residents, who have said it will affect house values and disturb the peace and quiet of their once quiet street.
The council had initially planned to put in a traditional football field at the site, but have now changed tack, partly because there is Sportscotland grant aid available for an all-weather facility.
Also forming part of the proposals are the eight 16-metre-high floodlighting columns, a steel container to store maintenance vehicles and equipment, and a five-metre-high security fence.
The pitch itself, which will be next to Birch Road, is full-size, with an overall area of 106 metres by 66 metres.
One of the affected residents, Mrs Flora Somerville, had until recently looked out onto woods, but will be around 30 metres from the new football area if the plans get the go-ahead.
She said: "We were initially informed by Highland Council that this was a like for like replacement, and now suddenly we are faced with this – 50-foot-high floodlights and 16-foot-high fencing.
"Turning it into this kind of pitch will mean that football will be played 24/7 or near as damn it. This is a massive development. Everyone living around here is disgusted."
She continued: "The floodlighting is going to affect many local houses, but Birch Road will be the front line.
"However, residents just over the railway line at Silverglades, as well as in Burnside Place, Burnside Road and Burnside Avenue, will suffer, as will those at the Hanover Housing complex and right over to Kinveachy Gardens."
Neighbour Helen Harold said: "I am really concerned about how close we will be to the site and the floodlights. I do not know of any stadium close to here that requires this amount of lighting, and why do the floodlights have to be so high?"
"The reason I bought my house in this street was because it was a lovely quiet area. I brought up my children here: they enjoyed playing on the field and in the nearby woods, and for all that to be gone will be a real shame.
"Obviously progress – if that is the right word – happens, but I am really concerned about how this will affect the value of my home."
Mrs Harold also criticised the council for only handing out two neighbour notification letters about the proposed work – to her house and another within 20 metres of the proposed site.
"The plans have changed many times since the ones that we signed up to. They should have notified everyone living in Birch Road at least," she said.
Another local resident, Mike McArthur, wrote on the ‘Strathy’s’ Facebook page: "It’s not the pitch that people like us who are near it have a problem with; it’s the ‘cage’ and 50-foot lights that are the issue.
"Why should I, as a resident of Aviemore for more than 10 years, have to book to take my son to play football or anything else on a community space?"
Highland Council’s housing and property service has just lodged the plans with the authority’s Badenoch and Strathspey planning service, based in Kingussie. Residents of Birch Road said they would be submitting strong objections.
The council’s background information with the application states that the mounted lights can be controlled to minimise glare and lighting to adjacent houses.
It also states: "Management of the use of the pitch will require the booking of the area through the community office, and the playing area will be operable only through booking and secured after hours."
There will also be planting and landscaping to reduce the visual impact of what is proposed.
A Highland Council spokesman said that an all-weather pitch is playable more often than grass.
He added: "We have submitted the planning application for the pitch, and the Cairngorms National Park Authority was notified on July 7."
A spokeswoman for the CNPA said they will decide during their next round of call-ins on July 22 whether the pitch application will be determined by their planning committee or will go to Highland Council for a decision.
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