St Johnstone Football Club has been granted permission to shift a “crucial” training ground which was at the centre of a heated planning row.
Saints bosses lodged plans for a new pitch after a prolonged dispute between the club and Perth and Kinross Council.
The Scottish Premiership side had claimed its existing training pitch had been threatened by by plans for the council’s so-called Crematorium Road plan – a relief road at the A9/A85 junction which will link the city with a proposed £1 billion housing development at Bertha Park.
Last year, the club fought against attempts by the local authority to take over part of the pitch using compulsory purchase powers. Saints’ officials said the £100,000 training site was vital to the club’s future.
Now local authority planners have approved the new training ground, which will be placed on a seven-and-a-half acre plot next to the club’s McDiarmid Park stadium.
The site is currently used as a practice ground and for overflow parking.
In her report, planning officer Joanne Ferguson said she was satisfied the new pitch will not have a negative impact on the surrounding area.
“The proposal does not include any flood lighting and this will therefore restrict the hours of operation to daylight hours, which will significantly reduce the end of the pitch reducing any potential impacts on potential adjacent dwellings,” she said. “A further planning application would be required should floodlighting be required.”
She added: “As for noise, the hitting of the fence with the ball will be a relatively infrequent event and any incidences of deliberate kicking of balls against the fence would be a management issue and should be dealt with as such.
“Environmental Health confirm that, to their knowledge, they have never received any complaints with regard to noise from the use of the existing area when used for football.”
The council had previously accused the club of using its current training ground “unlawfully”, claiming that original planning consent expired in 2002.
And the authority’s argument was upheld after an appeal to the Scottish Government.
Club chairman Steve Brown highlighted the importance of the training pitch in a letter to Scottish Ministers in 2015.
He said: “As with all smaller professional football clubs, it is a constant struggle to generate and maintain income levels sufficient to maintain the stadium grounds, training facilities and of course players and staff salaries.
“If it (the training pitch) were lost, it could not be replaced elsewhere without our ownership and we would be forced into finding an alternative off-site location which… would be much less satisfactory from an operational point of view.”
St Johnstone withdrew its objection to the compulsory purchase order just hours before a public inquiry was held in Perth.
