Horsham's Forest Secondary School's plans for new all-weather pitch approved

The application for The Forest School, in Comptons Lane, was given the nod during a meeting of the planning & rights of way committee on Tuesday (June 27).

The facilities will be for community use as well as for the school, with opening hours set at 9am to 9pm Monday to Friday all year round, 9am to 6pm on Saturdays between May and September, 9am to 7pm on Saturdays between October and April, and 10am to 4pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays all year round.

The council received 70 objections to the plans, with concerns raised including noise and light pollution, that the acoustic fence would be ‘visually intrusive’, and fears about increased traffic along Comptons Lane.

A further 28 letters of support were received.

Headteacher Ian Straw gave some background to the application.

It came about after the school was approached by the county council and asked if it would give up some of its land to the Queen Elizabeth II special school, which shares the site.

Mr Straw said Forest School had been happy to do so in exchange for an all-weather pitch, as it is the only secondary school in Horsham not to have one.

He added that the main reason for wanting an all-weather pitch was that the school’s current grass facilities were unusable for parts of the year due to the weather.

This had a knock-on effect to other areas as PE lessons were often held in the main hall during poor weather, meaning classes such as drama had to be moved to smaller rooms.

Mr Straw said the school wanted to be ‘responsible neighbours’ but also wanted to provide opportunities for clubs and activities which may not have anywhere else to go.

As well as the pitch, which will measure 106m x 70m, the application covered the building of a 4.5m high perimeter fence, 50m tall floodlighting, hard-standing, a storage container, a 3.3m tall timber acoustic barrier fence and an access pathway.

To view the application, log on to westsussex.planning-register.co.uk and search for WSCC/047/21.