St Peter's School, York: Yorkshire's oldest school to be refused permission for new floodlit sports pitches

St Peter’s School, a private boarding school in the Clifton area of York, had envisaged the construction of a 126-seat viewing stand with a spectator standing area, 78 parking spaces, with a two-lane access road leading onto Westminster Road.

There would be eight floodlit hockey pitches with 18 flood lights 15 metres high; fencing six metres high and ball netting 4.5 metres high; six floodlit tennis/netball courts with nine flood lights 10 metres high and fencing six metres high; a floodlit cricket and netball practice area flood lights eight metres high, a grounds maintenance office and a tractor store.

However, objections have been included in a report for the council’s planning committee to consider.

The report reads: “No account has been taken of a reasonable worst-case scenario involving a large number of pitch users arriving at the same time or in quick succession.

“No account has also been taken of the sound of engines idling in Westminster Road in the vicinity of the junction.

“In terms of spectator noise whilst it is acknowledged that the applicant is willing to accept a restriction on usage of the spectator stand no account has been taken of the impact of spectator noise at all particularly bearing in mind the elevated nature of the site and the elevated nature of the stand.”

The site is located on York’s Green Belt and there are also concerns noted in the report about biodiversity.

It reads: “Overall, it is considered that any further development of the land would have detrimental and irreversible impacts to the river corridor, its associated faunal and faunal assemblage, and correspondingly the nationally significant wildlife site – Clifton Ings and Rawcliffe Meadows Sites of Special Scientific Interest.”

Sports England also objected to the proposal “on the grounds that the proposal would have an adverse impact upon pitch space available for playing cricket.”

The Woodland Trust objected “on the grounds of harm to the root protection zone of two veteran trees on the National Inventory through the proposed access construction works.”

St Peter’s was founded in AD 627, making it the fourth-oldest school in the world, and moved to its current site in 1844 on land sold by the Fawkes family, whose son Guy, the Gunpowder Plot leader, was a former pupil. It now offers day and boarding for boys and girls up to the age of 18.