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
Everyone at the South London Press thanks you for your continued support.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing:
“A FREE COUNTRY NEEDS A FREE PRESS, AND THE NEWSPAPERS OF OUR COUNTRY ARE UNDER SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL PRESSURE”
If you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can make a donation which will allow us to continue to bring stories to you, both in print and online. Or please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ
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.