BUCKLAND Athletic Football Club's application for floodlights on its main pitch at South Quarry between Decoy and Kingskerswell scored with Newton Abbot Town Council Planning Committee on Tuesday.
The pitch is in the Abbotskerswell parish and the town council was asked for its observations by Teignbridge Council because the floodlight columns cannot be seen from Abbotskerswell. If allowed, they would be seen from the Milber and Aller Park area of Newton Abbot. It is also only a few hundred yards from the controversial CLS Laundry building at Decoy, Newton Abbot.
The application is for half-a-dozen 15m high columns, one each on the halfway line and one in each corner.
Chairman Cllr David Howe said Teignbridge Council's Abbotskerswell ward member Cllr Mary Colclough had asked for the matter to be discussed by the district authority's development control committee.
Cllr Howe said there were 20 or more letters of objection from residents of Aller Park. 'Apart from playing a match, if you are just using it as a training evening you would not have all the lights on and I would suggest they have a circuit in which a number of lights could be turned off for training etc.
'I think the principle of people being able to enjoy their sport is fine,' he said. The committee, which will be forwarding a copy to Abbotskerswell Parish Council, decided to recommend to Teignbridge that the floodlights should be switched off by 9.30pm, that the columns should blend in with the skyline, and that the lighting circuit should be such that not all lights should be on during training sessions.