AN OTLEY school is to press ahead with a contentious scheme to create an artificial sports pitch.

Prince Henry’s Grammar School’s original plan for the facility, to be built on the field in front of its main building, did not go down well with neighbouring residents.

Sports groups and others, however, threw their support behind the proposals which were backed by the Football Foundation.

The planning application ended up attracting nearly 280 comments, almost evenly split between supporters and objectors. But the proposals were withdrawn in early 2019 over concerns about the impact of the pitch’s floodlights on bats that roost close by.

Now the school has announced it will be submitting revised plans over the coming months - and hopes to be in a position to build the facility later this year. Prince Henry’s sent a message to residents on Friday, January 17 to update them.

It said: “Following an analysis of the results of the extended ecological survey, we have now met with the Football Foundation and are preparing to move forwards with an amended proposal for the Astro Turf project with our other partners in the next few months.

“This will include a commitment to implementing a range of ecological mitigation measures.

“We will be submitting a request for planning pre-application advice to Leeds City Council very shortly.

“Once we have received initial advice from the Planning Department, we will be able to move forwards with finalising the detailed plans for the pitch and additional fundraising. We would hope to be able to apply for full planning permission in the spring of 2020 with a view to building the pitch in the late summer or autumn of 2020, for use in January 2021.

“There will be opportunities for members of the community to make their views known throughout the process.”

One local resident, who did not wish to be named, said: “We are not surprised that the school is planning to re-apply and we shall all be looking carefully at the proposed plans. But, in essence, whatever ‘mitigation measures’ are planned it does not change the fact that the proposed pitch is quite simply, in the wrong place.

“This is not only the viewpoint of the residents who border the proposed pitch, and who will be seriously affected, but from an environmental point of view the traffic travelling to and from north of the river is often at a standstill.”

The school has highlighted how the all-weather pitch, which would be floodlit and available to the wider community to hire, would provide a boost for local sport. Neighbouring residents, however, are worried about potential noise and light pollution as well as the impact on parking and traffic.