Artificial grass vs natural grass – Part 8

There are of course always alternatives to such large projects. The main reason I believe the grounds are changing to artificial grass is due to the cost. I do not have an alternative to this, it really is so much more cost effective for the council to have artificial fields compared to natural grass ones. Having said this some of the reason for artificial fields do have alternatives.

The main one being the grounds cannot cope with the amount of sport being played on them. On the surface this does make sense, especially when you see the condition that the grounds are in after the season. But as I have recently discovered there is an alternative to this. Many of the grounds that are present in my area do not have flood lights. This is not a problem in summer because the sun does not go down until 7 – 8pm. But in winter the sun goes down at 5. Meaning that senior teams many of whom do not finish work until 5:30 cannot train at the grounds without lights. This leaves the ground only available for junior teams to be able to use. Many of these though do not finish school until 3 and cannot get to the ground until 3:30 at the earliest. This only means that the ground is available for less than 2 hours.

Now out of the 5 or so grounds closest to where I live a third of them do not have these flood lights. If they did though it would mean the surrounding grounds would not be used as much. The flood lights cost a fraction of what the artificial fields cost and in terms of trying to preserve the fields could have been an option.

But as I understand it the council explored this option and to my disbelief it got knocked back and rejected by the residents. I find this quite ridiculous; the lights are only on until 9:15 pm that is a pretty normal bedtime. I suppose noise might also be a factor, but trainings usually finish at 9 at the latest and after people leave the field its quiet. If it is seriously that big of a problem, close the window and shut the blinds, right?