Horsham YMCA Football Club has been given permission to install all-weather pitch at Gorings Mead

Officers at the district council had recommended the application be refused – but members of the planning committee gave it the nod during a meeting on Tuesday (December 5).

The 3G artificial surface, along with new perimeter paths, fencing, floodlighting and a goal storage area, can now be built.

The club’s vice-chairman, Steve Ratcliff, said: “We plan to open up the facility for use by more local people of all ages – young people, veterans, people with physical and mental health disabilities.

“This pitch upgrade will be a much-needed lifeline for the club and it will help to secure the site and the club’s financial future for another 25 to 30 years.

“It’s a £1m project funded primarily by grants from the Football Foundation, FA Stadium Fund, YMCA Downslink, and the football club itself.”

The recommendation to refuse the application was made on the grounds that the work would result in the loss of a healthy, protected ash tree, estimated to be around 175 years old.

During a meeting in October, the committee asked the club to look into ways to carry out the work whilst still keeping the tree.

While an alternative way of putting in the foundations was presented, the council’s tree officer was still worried that damage to the tree ‘cannot be ruled out’.

The committee had also asked for more information about the club’s financial viability should the 3G pitch be refused.

Information presented to the meeting showed that the new pitch would turn annual losses of around £34,000 into profits of around £10,000.

The council received 73 letters of support for the application and 22 objections, with concerns including road safety and an increase in traffic along Gorings Mead and Brighton Road.

Committee members held a lengthy discussion, trying to balance the potential loss of a protected tree and the wildlife it supports, with the future of the 125-year-old football club and its benefits to health and wellbeing.

National planning policy said there had to be ‘wholly exceptional reasons’ to justify the potential loss of or damage to such a tree.

Members agreed by 15 vote to four with two abstentions that those reasons were the viability of the club and how the new infrastructure would benefit to the physical and mental health of the community.

To view the application, log on to public-access.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/22/2257.