Lindow Lawn Tennis Club has submitted another planning application to install floodlights at their Cumber Lane site.
This proposal is for 8 floodlight units mounted on 6 masts, with three installed each side of two out of their three courts. The 8 metre masts will be electrically retractable after each use and retract to 3.5 metres in height when not illuminated.
Initially the Club sought permission to erect eight floodlights to serve their three courts, each of which would be 8 metres high and could be used at all hours. During the course of the application changes were made to the plans so that the lights would be retractable, they would be 8 metres high when in use and 3.5 metres when retracted, and they would serve two rather than three courts.
In December 2012 Cheshire East Council refused planning permission for the floodlights to be installed on the grounds that the proposed lights would have a significant detrimental impact on the amenities of the occupants of neighbouring properties due to light spillage, light glare and noise disturbance.
Lindow Tennis Club lodged an appeal against this refusal and submitted revised plans and updated light spillage tables, reflecting the changes, however Cheshire East Council dismissed the appeal on the grounds that the proposal was still considered to have a detrimental impact on the amenities of the occupants of neighbouring properties.
This new application, reference 14/2498M, includes the revised plans and updated light spillage tables as well as further changes designed to improve the original and appealed schemes.
According to the design statement submitted with the application "The effect of the careful positioning of the floodlight columns on only those two courts, incorporating modern internal baffles in the lamp housings, using the latest compact light sources with overspill limiting back shields to each lamp housing are most significant when comparing the original planning application's widespread light pollution.
"With the benefit of these technical amendments, it will be seen that this proposal now offers major improvements in the illuminance control of the floodlights, which would no longer create any light pollution impact on the amenity of any of the nearby residential properties whatsoever. No dwellings on the three surrounding residential locations of Cumber Lane, The Lawns or The Coppins would suffer from any loss of amenity from this revised scheme. In fact the light output from the nearby single streetlamp at the entrance of The Coppins is likely to throw more illumination on that access path than low minimal light scatter from the proposed tennis club floodlights."
The maximum hours for the floodlights to be in operations are from 4pm 9.30pm Monday to Saturday and 4pm to 8.30pm on Sundays.
The planning application can be viewed on the Cheshire East Council website by searching for planing reference 14/2498M. The deadline for submitting comments is 18th August and a decision is expected by 3rd September.
Wilmslow Town Council's Planning Committee will be considering this application at their meeting on Monday 11th August.
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