Thousands sign petition to stop commercial pitches near Tooting Common playground
Fuming residents have signed a petition to demanded plans be blocked to build pay-and-play football pitches on a corner of Tooting Common.
More than 5,000 people have demanded Wandsworth planning committee on Tuesday vote against the project, on a site currently occupied by a cinder pitch, near the Tooting Triangle Playground and Balham Boxing Club.
The petition says the plans feature three floodlit astroturf football pitches and a 15 foot-high mesh fence and would mean an 80 yard length of the common will no longer be freely accessible to the public.
It says: “It will lead to a substantial increase in cars being parked at the entrance to the common both day and night – with the pitch used extensively by [Balham] Football Club who compete in a semi professional league and recruit players across South London.
“This private development puts a price on using London’s commons. It will bring traffic, noise and artificial light that will destroy the natural environment and one of the few green spaces in London not bounded by roads.”
The petition is here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/protect-tooting-common?share=f96c2a8f-2055-4d9e-8d90-bad31e9d5b03&source=email-share-button&utm_source=email
Surely your job as journalists is to publish both sides of the story so people can be more fully informed?
Who knows, maybe there are advantages we don’t know about?
How ridiculous people are trying to stop this. The UK has a health and fitness epidemic and there’s a shortage of floodlit sports pitches London wide.
The pitch is nowhere near houses and most people in London travel by public transport anyway. I really hope this pitch can go ahead as there is such a huge shortage of floodlit sports pitches in Wandsworth and Lambeth.