FOR GRASS, READ PLASTIC! SCHOOL GIVEN GO-AHEAD FOR SYNTHETIC PITCH REPLACEMENT

                                                                          

Young footballers will no longer get their knees muddy 

A FULL-size grass football pitch is to be replaced with a synthetic alternative.

Humberston Academy on Humberston Avenue is the latest local school to favour plastic over grass.

Planning consent has this week been approved by North East Lincolnshire Council which also improved the intallation of floodlighting and CCTV.

Ironically the name of the school's agents for the scheme is . . . Grass Roots Planning.

The intention is for the pitch to be used not just by pupils but also by other clubs such as Grimsby Borough FC.

Downsides are that firstly the project will urbanise this part of the village and secondly that Nature and the environment will take a hit.

For instance, bats, which are known to forage along Humberston Avenue,  may be disturbed by the floodlighting. 

                                     

Curlew - a species that loves to feed on school playing fields (but only if they are made of grass)

In addition, feeding habitat will be lost to curlews which, after arriving from Finland in winter, regularly feed on the grass pitch, probing the turf for earthworms with their long decurved bills.

The synthetic grass is thought to be imported from China.

The Grimsby News says: The trend for schools to replace grass with plastic is regrettable. Ask any child and he/she will invariably express a preference for playing on the former. But did the school even think to ask an opinion from its pupils? True, they won't get muddy on wet plastic, but since when did a bit of mud do any harm?