New school sports facility and controversial road plan given the green light

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A school where students haven’t had proper sports facilities for years will finally get a brand new 3G football pitch. Laurus Ryecroft School, based on Lumb Lane in Droylsden, has been granted permission to build an artificial grass football pitch sized 120m x 80m.

The planning panel, meeting in Droylsden, was told how the proposal also includes six 18m floodlights; an equipment storage facility, a toilet block; and two lanes for cricket nets.

Ed Haslam, a director at the Laurus Trust, told the panel how the school had been struggling to find space for PE lessons in the sports hall - which is the only option when the grass pitch is unusable. READ MORE: Man ‘left for dead in the road’ in horror spanner attack in chaotic scenes after England game He explained that the condition of the grass pitch gets ‘worse and worse, year on year’ and this all-weather alternative would be of huge benefit for students.

He added: “Latest figures suggest around 30 per cent of children are obese by the time they get to Year 7. This would play a part in reducing these findings.” There were a small number of objections relating to the potential impact of the flood lights shining into their homes later at night, but planning officers deemed them too far from the homes for this to be considered as a problem worth refusing.