News / Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Neighbours angry as cricket club may have floodlights on longer
A cricket club’s plans in Bristol to apply for permission to switch on floodlights for longer are angering neighbours living nearby.
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is based on Nevil Road in Ashley Down and is trying to increase the hours when floodlights can be turned on.
Bristol City Council is due to decide this week whether to grant permission.
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If so, then the club could use floodlights for more than the currently allowed 15 days a year from 10am and 7pm, to allow matches to carry on when there is a lack of daylight between April and September.
The plans will be considered by councillors on the development control A committee on Wednesday.
Several local residents wrote to the council’s planning department, objecting to the changes to the floodlights, which are like “looking at a car headlight”.
One neighbour said: “The floodlights are on this afternoon and they are a lot brighter than the ambient light.
“From my home workspace they have the effect of looking at a car headlight on main beam, i.e., dazzling and distracting.”
The mural on the wall features Mike Procter, Courtney Walsh, David Payne and David ‘Syd’ Lawrence, all captured in dynamic bowling poses – photo: Gloucestershire Cricket Club
Another resident added: “Later cricket, supported by the lighting which penetrates the windows of local homes, only leads to more drunken fans leaving the venue and the disturbance of the natural circadian rhythms of local wildlife.
“This feels like the local residents having to endure more blinding lights to facilitate the cricket ground aligning with TV deals.”
However not everybody was against the idea. Several locals also wrote in, supporting the application, given the benefits the cricket ground brings to the wider area, including for charity.
One said: “The ongoing prosperity of the cricket club is key to ensuring its role in the local community is maintained, bringing jobs, boosting local businesses and providing entertainment.
“The cricket club has been here for much longer than any of the local residents.”
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Council planning officers are recommending that the application be approved.
The specific changes are to the floodlight usage management plan, known as a “FLUMP”.
This would allow the floodlights to be turned on during days with “bad light”, such as when the weather is overcast, which presents an “obvious and dangerous risk to the safety of players”.
When the floodlights were first installed in 2016, the council restricted their usage to just 15 days a year, given the concerns about how they would affect neighbours.
Since then, the cricket club has become concerned about matches getting cancelled due to poor levels of light.
In planning documents, agents for the club said: “Under English Cricket Broad and International Cricket Council regulations, the decision whether ‘bad light’ has been reached is solely for the umpires to make.
“If additional light cannot be secured, they must instruct that play is immediately suspended and not allowed to restart until appropriate light levels have been reached.”
In the longer term, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is planning to move to a new home.
They have played at Nevil Road in Bristol since 1889, but could soon relocate to a new site near the M5 motorway.
Swanmoor Stoke is near the Wave and the Wild Place Project, less than a mile from Junction 17 of the M5.
Although any potential move is still several years away.
Main photo: Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
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