Caterham School extends sports hall opening hours
Residents will get “very little let up” after a private school was granted permission to open its sports centre for longer hours, a councillor said.
Caterham School, which charges fees of up to £48,435 per year for boarding pupils, submitted an application to Tandridge District Council to extend the opening hours of its indoor sports facilities with early openings from 6.30am and up to 10pm on some days.
The school’s sports centre contains a gym, badminton courts and a swimming pool and is open for members and sports clubs to use.
It is currently operating on hours that were set when planning permission was granted in 1994.
A representative for the school, which has been on the site since 1884, said the changes would mean the local community could use the facilities in the early mornings before they were in use by the school.
Suri Araniyasundaran, the school’s bursar, told a planning committee on Thursday (November 2) that the school also wanted to be able to accommodate the change in people’s working patterns that had taken place since the coronavirus pandemic.
He added that despite concerns from residents about external floodlighting, that part of the application had been removed and the changes related only to the indoor facilities.
Mr Araniyasundaran told the meeting: “We’re a charity, but we have to be financially viable, that is quite important.
“There are lots of things that may change for us over the next two years potentially, so we have to be financially viable.”
One public speaker at the meeting said the application was an example of the school “wanting yet more, never being happy with what they have and pushing boundaries already agreed”.
He said: “Remember, they are a school as their charitable status requires.
“They are not a commercial business or a chain of gyms, yet their desire for extended hours is primarily about their revenue stream.”
The objector told the meeting: “There will be no Sabbath rest for us residents from the school’s over-use of these facilities.
“We are not opposed to the sports hall being used, but not for all of these extended hours.”
The committee granted the application, also adding an informative which stated that the school should “look at ways of minimising light pollution across the sports hall site”.
Mr Araniyasundaran said if needed a future application would be brought back to change the times for the use of external floodlights.
He said the school would work with the local community and councillors to see how it could “ameliorate” concerns about light pollution and its impact on residents and wildlife.
Councillor Judy Moore (Independent, Felbridge) raised concerns about “banging” car sounds and engine noise at the site.
She said: “Looking at these hours, there seems very little let up at all from comings and goings, from half past six in the morning until nine or 10 o’clock at night.”
The sports facilities will now be able to open from 6.30am until 10pm from Monday to Thursday, from 6.30am until 9pm on Fridays and from 8am until and 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.