At a planning committee meeting on Monday (June 5), Okehampton Town Council decided to oppose the most recent variation to the Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust’s (DMAT) application for a 3G sports pitch at St James Primary School in Okehampton.

In the next chapter of the saga, which has been ongoing since 2019 before houses were built in the area, councillors decided they would oppose the new planning application despite changes to address previous concerns about the construction of the pitch.

The variation to the plan attempts to address concerns over loss of privacy to neighbouring houses and proposes to raise the height of the fence surrounding the pitch from 1.8 metres to 2.4 metres along with an additional privacy mesh fence and ‘hit and miss’ fence above.

The pitch will also be moved back from the neighbouring houses by 28 metres and a barrier of trees and hedgerows will be added to mitigate concerns over loss of privacy.

However, councillors have still raised concerns about the negative impact such changes would still have to neighbouring properties.

Cllr Julie Yelland said: ‘I am slightly concerned. We still have the height [of the fence] which is going to be overbearing for the houses that back on to that site.

‘A lot of the objections have talked about the design and height and impact on the people living in the houses.

‘If you’ve got that fencing it’s going to be on the level of the bedrooms of those properties. With a 2.4 metre fence, the children wouldn’t be able to jump up that high [to look over the fence], there’s still the issue throughout of it being on the eye level of bedrooms with children down below and a safeguarding issue.

‘Planting trees is normally a brilliant idea but it’s going to be steep and high and raised and the trees will grow.’

Though St James has a grass pitch already, the application is for a 3G pitch so that the children can play sports in all weather, but it has proven to be a controversial application.

One particular sticking point has been a rise in the level of the pitch, which is now higher than when planning permission was originally granted due to a failure to remove the spoil created when the grass pitch was built.

Though the new application proposes lowering the pitch slightly on the north-west side, several have suggested that the whole pitch be lowered to the height originally proposed rather than building a higher fence.

On behalf of DMAT, which runs the school, architecture company Oxenham Consult, wrote: ‘The school has now been opened for a number of years without the required provision of outside sports facilities and has over this time grown in size. The nearest pitches being at Okehampton College and the primary school are too far to travel within the current curriculum so can’t offer a practical solution.

‘This proposal offers minor adaptions of the original scheme to address concerns of privacy for both neighbours and pupils whilst addressing any construction limitations inherited within the site.’