Support our planning application for floodlights

We have recently submitted an application to install a modest set of floodlights at the Menace Arena, and need our friends to write in support to Southwark Council. The plans and associated documentation can be found here, or by searching for “18/AP/1204” on the Southwark Council planning portal. The floodlights are an important enhancement to our existing facility, which will allow our club to continue to use existing activities in an improved way.

You can write in support of the plans by clicking on "make a comment" here. All comments must be submitted by Friday 1 June. Personalised comments will have a far greater impact with decision makers. Sending in duplicate statements / comments are not as valuable. We suggest you draw on the following ten points when submitting:

Why do you care about the club?
1. Introduce yourself and your relationship with Peckham Town Football Club.
2. Explain how the club has had a positive effect on your life or the lives of people close to you.

Why is Peckham Town important for the community?
3. Outline the great work that Peckham Town does by providing football opportunities for a range of groups across the community – kids, women and disabled etc. Over the last 13 years, the club has delivered youth opportunities through football to over 20,000 young people on housing estates throughout Southwark.
4. Note how Peckham Town is very inclusive – encourages sporting use from all sections of the community – unlike some of the more exclusive higher cost sporting facilities in the local area.
5. The floodlights are a modest, but important enhancement to the existing facility, which will allow Peckham Town's men and women's teams to carry on their existing activity in an improved way. It will allow activities during the darker months to continue at a similar time as they already do in the lighter months. This will provide enhanced sporting opportunities for many local people.
6. Express the lack of floodlights have prevented the men's first team from progressing up the non-league system. Promotion has been prevented on four separate occasions.

Why are the plans appropriate for the area?
7. Highlight that the proposal is visually modest, largely obscured by a heavy and protected mature tree canopy, and sits in a secluded position on low land, and bordered by the South Circular. The floodlights have slender poles that will be seen very much in the context of the sporting infrastructure that already exists on the site. There is therefore no impact to openness because of this.
8. The proposed floodlights would not have a material impact on residential properties as they would be on an existing facility and there will be no significant intensification use. Light from the floodlights will only be visible when they are in operation and even then would be viewed within the context of the adjoining south circular, where car headlights and lamp posts are already a dominant feature. The light levels and angles of the floodlights prevent will not harm the biodiversity of the area.

How do the plans fit with existing planning policy?
9. The proposal is in line with the current Southwark Plan, and in particular Strategic Policy 4, i.e. Southwark will support "the retention and improvement of facilities which encourage physical activity and ensuring that development promotes healthy lifestyles and addresses negative impacts on physical and mental health." and in para 5.44 "encourage better use of community facilities that are currently underused." These plans will therefore enable the better use of our existing facility at the Menace Arena.
10. Southwark Council's 2013 "Dulwich Supplementary Planning Document" has previously highlighted the importance of local sports clubs in Dulwich Village (and surrounds) and their benefit to both the local community. These plans are aligned with these aims.

Many thanks for taking the time to write to the Council. We really appreciate the support of all involved with our Menace family. Please don’t underestimate the importance of comments from Southwark residents in determining this planning application. Remember your comments must be submitted by 1 June.

Up the Menace!

Updated 18:00 - 30 Aug 2019 by Duncan Hart