Churchlands Pitch & Landscape Upgrades Revealed

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Having been granted approval for 74 houses back in January – 55 short of the 132 applied for – the Wood Group are about to begin work on the agreed landscaping of the surrounding area before building can commence.

And it’s going to transform what has become something of a rubbish tip and burnt-out car graveyard on one side, and a recently-resurrected if volatile football pitch on the other.

Part of the stipulation by WCC means the new development must include road upgrades, cycle ways and landscaped spaces, a créche, playing pitch and wooded area renovation, and a new entrance and car park for St Laurence’s School.

And now, along with the above site plan, details of the work about to commence on these new facilities and improvements to the area have just been released…

· Work has started to build a new 90 space car park and junction at St. Laurence’s school and it’s planned to complete the work in two stages. The first will be to finish the new junction and 60 car spaces by Monday 3rd September when the school reopens. Stage two, the eastern end of the car park, will then be completed by early October.

· In addition to the parking spaces the design also provides for bus parking, numerous set down spaces and cycle ways.

· Separately works on the soccer pitches have also kicked off! Later this month temporary fencing will be erected to screen off the work (for safety reasons), and the existing pitch and surrounding lands will be excavated.

· We are installing two grass pitches, one half sized all weather pitch and a small all weather mixed use games area.

· This will entail lifting the pitch level by a few inches and then installing approximately 2,500 m of pipe drainage and 12,500 m of sand slit drains right across the area.

· The topsoil is then re spread, fertilised and seeded, and this will all be completed by the end of September. It will however need some months to bed in before its usable – depending on the weather this will probably mean next Easter. The all-weather pitch and muga will be available for use immediately.

· The temporary fencing will be removed by the end of October, and there will be no permanent fencing around any of the pitches.

· We are also cleaning up the ‘wooded area’ on the eastern side of the pitches. This will entail removing debris, dead undergrowth etc, then replanting in the Autumn.

· The existing tarmacadam paths in the wood will be resurfaced.

The Churchlands housing scheme will likely start thereafter but this is to be confirmed. You can follow the path from there to here right here.