Last year the head teacher of Dorothy Stringer made a planning application to build a floodlit night football pitch for hire on the grounds of the school.

After many objections from local residents, the planning committee rejected his plan by ten votes to two.

He has now produced another plan which is somewhat smaller, some of the threatened trees are spared but many will still be sacrificed, including half the coppice, a wildlife haven. Once the proposed pitch was in situ, it would be a simple matter to make another planning application to extend it to full size and also increase the hours of opening.

For 37 years I have lived in Osborne Road, looking down on the Surrenden/Balfour neighbourhood. This is certainly one of the most tranquil and beautiful places in Brighton, most of all because we live around the green campus of five schools, a beauty spot to thousands of residents as precious as Preston Park.

The proposed pitch is to be open four hours a night till 9pm, every weekday and all day Saturday and Sunday. It will have powerful floodlights 15m high, visible across the Preston Valley. Noise from these matches will radiate across the entire area. The hill is a natural amphitheatre and the long terrace wall of Osborne Road acts as a sounding board. When football games are played now, shouting is heard all over the neighbourhood. At four in the afternoon this is tolerable but imagine football matches for hours every evening and all day at weekends. The whole character of our peaceful streets and houses will be destroyed.

Some years ago at Blatchington Mill the residents allowed a night hockey pitch to be constructed. They were assured that noise and pollution from the floodlights would not trouble them.

The very opposite has been the case. There has been annoyance, disturbance and complaints from the residents there ever since.

Don’t let this happen here!

If you care about protecting our trees, wildlife and the green fields of the campus, then follow Save Our School Trees on Facebook: www.facebook.com/saveourschooltrees

Peter Linden, Osborne Road, Brighton