9:40am Friday 1st February 2008
By Andrew Kilmurray
OFFICIALS at an amateur rugby league club have vowed to come out fighting' after a planning verdict dealt a heavy blow to their hopes of moving to a new ground.
Pilks Recs, who have more than 300 junior and adult players on their books, were responding after St Helens Council's Planning Committee knocked back proposals to create sports facilities on Victoria Park.
The decision was welcomed by neighbours living opposite the park who claimed sports facilities would lead to a loss of open space and create parking congestion on match days.
However, the verdict was a bodyblow to the rugby club. John Rees, 29, from Pilks Recs, said: "We're disappointed but we are going to come out fighting. We plan to generate plenty of public interest about our plight."
The club's chairman Ralph Rawsthorne, 49, added: "We feel the objections are very short-sighted and people are not seeing the bigger picture.
"I cannot understand how on one hand residents complain about youth disorder and then object when a rugby club that brings children into sport and creates community spirit tries to secure its future."
The Victoria Park scheme would have been the catalyst for Recs, one of the country's most famous amateur clubs, to re-locate at the council-owned Bishop Road playing fields.
Recs' current City Road sports ground is up for sale by glass giants Pilkington, who are seeking planning permission to build housing on the rugby pitches and surrounding land.
The company, however, needs to offer compensatory sports facilities for those that would be lost at City Road, or otherwise face planning consent being blocked by Sport England opposition.
The Victoria Park plan - for two football pitches, a sports pavilion, netball court and improved bowling green - was submitted by the property arm of Pilkington Ltd. and would have become a base for football teams currently using Bishop Road.
Following the closure of the Windle City social club last year, Recs now use St Helens Cricket Club in Windleshaw Road (which adjoins the fields at Bishop Road) as a post-match base, but are anxious for their long-term playing future to be secured.
Meanwhile, ALPS - Pilkington's property arm - says it is now considering alternative sites where sports pitches can be re-located, but they have not ruled out an appeal against the planning decision.
Peter Alcock, ALPS' chief executive, said: "It is a little early to know for certain whether we are appealing, but that is one of the options we are considering."
Following the Star's reports about the knock-back of two sports developments this week in the face of neighbours' protests, St Helens Council leader Brian Spencer said the decisions were made "under due democratic process listening to the views of people who live around the two parks."
Cllr. Spencer, who represents the Liberal Democrat party, said a meeting is planned with ALPs with a view to finding an alternative site for the sports facilities.
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