Around 50 people turned out for a protest rally against plans for a 3G pitch on the Wood Lane playing field in Louth at the weekend.
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00:00So we've gathered here today to send a message to East Ends District Council and MV who run
00:21this site that this field is a green space, has been now for decades, it's used by residents
00:27for a whole variety of activities from dog walking to having a kick about, frisbee, all
00:33sorts of things, just enjoying the green space, having a walk, having a picnic, all these
00:37sorts of things and we want to send that message that we don't want development on this site
00:43because we need to expand our football facilities, you'd lose a grass pitch if you put a 3G pitch
00:47on this, that limits the level of football that can be played on here and yeah we want
00:55you to expand the spaces for football in this town rather than taking away a very good one
01:00at the moment.
01:01What do we want?
01:02Green space!
01:03When do we want it?
01:04Now!
01:05What do we want?
01:06Green space!
01:07Where do we want it?
01:08Here!
01:09What do we want?
01:10Green space!
01:11When do we want it?
01:12Now!
01:13I would argue that the 3G pitch does allow a lot more training on this field but it is
01:20solely for football and at the moment this is a multi-use area and it's a green space
01:26in town which is used by children.
01:29Some children will spend hours and hours and hours per week on here for free whereas a
01:353G pitch will only be for teams.
01:39We've acknowledged there's probably a short window of time after school hours which has
01:44been allocated where children can come and play for free but if that doesn't fit in with
01:50school holidays for example when they've got more time to be on here and it doesn't
01:54fit in with their lifestyle it's very much on the terms of MV and ELDC rather than children
02:02being able to turn up and play for free whenever they want to play and also of course parents
02:08turning up with their children so we get a lot of grandparents coming in for a kickabout
02:11with their kids, a lot of parents, mums, dads coming for a kickabout with their kids.
02:16It's going to be very different if you put a 3G on here.
02:28So this is owned by East Lindsay District Council, it's a strange situation because
02:33they can't prove, they can't prove when they acquired the site so it was previously in
02:42housing stock, it was 1972 East Lindsay acquired the site, there's no written evidence of this
02:48it's just through an email trail and so on and then MV rent the site but what's then
02:56happened is MV want to try and, they want to put the 3G on here to make as much profit
03:03as possible from the site but another site would be much more preferable for the people
03:11of Louth.
03:12And I take it that you suggested or made suggestions of an alternative site is that right?
03:17Yeah when they did a viability study of the different sites they chose this one because
03:26of the changing rooms and they chose this one because they've got staff on site to manage
03:31the site and all those sorts of things but MV are very successful and they would very
03:38easily be able to turn their hand to managing an alternative site to then protect this field
03:45as a grass football pitch.
03:47So we'll assemble at the headquarters in Horncastle on the 13th of March and we will then speak
03:57at that meeting, argue against the use of this field for a 3G football pitch and hopefully
04:06make the planning committee aware of the issues and they will see sense and then we can move
04:13on and put this 3G facility on a proper site.
04:17If they go ahead with it what's the answer then?
04:21Well we will ask, residents have raised some money and we will be asking town council who
04:26are unanimously against it whether we could apply for a judicial review into that decision.