FIFA standard football pitches signed off – despite “prison like” fencing

Planning permission for the state of the art ‘Sports Zone’ was passed on Monday at Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.

The major development, next to Laurelhill Community College, will see the transformation of an existing shale playing field into a world class 3G sporting facility with soccer and training pitches including floodlighting and spectator areas.

Currently the area has a floodlit astro-turf hockey pitch, an all weather pitch and a changing pavilion managed by Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council (LCCC) under licence agreement with the Education Authority.

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The new blueprints for the 1.39 hectare development outline how the site will become a new sports facility meeting “IFA intermediate football criteria and also FIFA 1 Star pitch quality standards”.

However, Downshire East councillor Alex Swan followed up on shared concerns in the chamber over a proposed low level fence designed to close the pitch off when not in use.

He said: “This fence is one metre around the pitch, I am 6ft tall and I could easily step over it, as I would think most people would.”

It was confirmed by the head of the council’s planning department, Conor Hughes that the fence was “FIFA required”.

A council officer was able to provide clarity on the fence, saying: “There is also a 6m mesh around the whole area, an inner 2m net behind the football goals and a 1.5m wide gate at the opening.”

Chairman of the committee, Alderman James Tinsley remarked: “Sounds like a prison. This looks to be quite a bit of fencing.”

With the concerns put at ease, the plans were adopted unanimously by the committee. Laurelhill Community College has said it had “no comment” on the planning approval.

Ulster Star previously reported on the extensive public consultation Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council has gone through, with an extensive public consultation which gained a recommendation by local authority officials, with councillors having met to make the final decision on the plans on, Monday October 3.