Angry residents fear their residential oasis will be ruined if a planning application for an all weather cricket pitch at Whitgift School is approved.
Families living on Whitgift Avenue opposite the planning site, are concerned that proposed 16m high floodlights surrounding the pitch will turn the leafy quiet street into a stadium.
Lionel Phillips is spearheading the campaign and lives directly opposite the fields of the proposed planning site.
He said: “The lights at night will be visible from the whole of the avenue. It will be like a factory or a stadium.
“It is a lovely road, an oasis in the middle of an ordinary residential area.
“An all weather pitch will disturb us, they say the lights will not be switched on until 9pm at night in the winter, but it gets dark before 9pm for eight months of the year.
“The whole scheme is monstrous.”
Another resident Ian Williams said residents were worried traffic would increase dramatically with people using the pitch.
“It is going to devastate that side of the road.”
Councillor Simon Hoar, for Waddon, is supporting the residents.
He said: “It is a terrible plan.
“The floodlights are going to be bigger than the houses, its really unfair of the school.”
The planning application has been lodged with Croydon Council and is in the consultation process.
Whitgift Avenue residents have sent letters of protest to the council.
The application includes construction of an all weather sports pitch on the corner of Haling Park Road and Whitgift Avenue to include the erection of eight 16 metre high floodlight columns and a 5m high weld-mesh fence.
The council have so far received 18 objections to the proposal from local residents and are due to make a decision on the planning application in August.
James Stremes, a spokesman for the school, said there would not be any increased traffic as all would go through the main school entrance.
He said: "Floodlighting is a normal part of such schemes and enables training to take place in the afternoons of the short winter days, however it is not envisaged that it will be used regularly in the evenings and certainly not beyond 9 or 10pm.
"New floodlighting technology means that light spillage away from the actual pitch is extremely limited and the School has been assured by its lighting specialists that neighbours will not be affected by the new floodlights.
"We would be more than willing to meet any concerned neighbours again on this occasion and have already taken into account the views of a number of residents on Whitgift Avenue."
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