PLANS for a third cricket pitch has triggered a row between two clubs over parking fears and land ownership.
Slough Cricket Club want to install a third pitch at their site in Upton Court Road with a shed to provide a changing room, a new scoreboard, a high batting screen, and an extension to the perimeter fence.
Their application was heard at a planning committee on Wednesday, June 23.
According to Nadeem Syed, treasurer of the club, more teams are coming forward to play and practise the game and are “struggling” to accommodate everyone with two pitches – resulting in turning people away.
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He said: “We had to, and this is the first time for the club as long as I’ve been there for 15 years, close our subscriptions for the new members because we cannot provide any playing facility to the new members.
“There are a lot of children, a lot of kids, showing a lot of interest in this sport but, unfortunately, without this pitch, we cannot support them.”
However, this application triggered a row with the neighbouring Slough hockey club, who also occupies the land, fearing parking chaos, traffic mayhem down the single access road, and the hockey club claims that land, where the third pitch will be, is allocated to them.
Currently, 55 car parking spaces are provided and are shared between the two groups as well as nearby residents.
A highways survey was conducted when matches and practice sessions were happening at both clubs on April 24 and concluded an additional 23 car parking is needed to meet the overspill, which is proposed in the application.
However, this didn’t quash Max Salvadori’s, the hockey club’s secretary, concerns, and he accused the cricket club of “misleading” and being “disingenuous” when it came to the parking as the car park is full to the brim when both clubs are busy, resulting in some parking on the grass.
The additional spaces won’t be enough to resolve this as he’s seen over 100 vehicles parked there on occasions, he claimed.
Mr Salvadori also claimed the land where the pitch will be is “not there’s to use” and allocated to the hockey club for future development.
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He said: “It’s crazy we’re finding ourselves in this situation where we can’t get a holistic plan which addresses the traffic issues properly onsite, benefits the people of Slough, and benefits the growth of sport in the community.”
But Mr Syed refuted that, saying they “never had any issues” with parking in the past and the land does belong to the cricket club.
He said they are only adding another pitch to the grounds, resulting in 22 more players coming to the club only in the summertime, and it will mostly be played by kids who will be dropped off by their parents.
There is a single-file access road that leads to the clubs off Kings Reach, which concerned councillor Harjinder Gahir (Lab: Wexham Lea) who called it “risky” if that road is used when both clubs have matches.
Planning officers say there would be an increase in traffic because of the third pitch, but think it won’t be “significant” that it will cause traffic chaos.
A majority of councillors on the planning committee approved the cricket club’s scheme – with one member voting against.
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