Morden Park is one of the largest green areas in Morden, a conservation area conveyed to public ownership for recreation and educational use’. Merton Council proposes to allow “Goals”, a private company, to build 10 five-a-side football pitches, 4 seven-a-side football pitches, 1 full-size football pitch, 2 multi-sport areas, and 2 full-size grass football pitches, a car park (with a capacity for upto 99 cars) and a clubhouse with a licensed bar on part of the park. Apart from the 2 full-size grass pitches, all the pitches would have artificial surfaces and powerful floodlights and would be used 7 days a week from 9.00am to 11.00pm – by those who can afford to spend up to £60 an hour to hire a pitch. to hire a pitch. When full there would be more than 300 people playing at any one time and at hand-over times between games there may be as many as 600 people on the playing fields, and more in the licensed bar. |
