Football club wins planning battle after neighbour claims 'it sounded like there was a funfair outside my front door'

A non-league football club has won a planning battle - despite concerns from a neighbour. Wythenshawe Town FC has been granted permission to build a new 152-capacity stand and toilet block.

It comes after another south Manchester football club was granted permission for a controversial application. Last week, West Didsbury and Chorlton AFC secured council permission to retain a metal storage container and ‘tea bar’ at their Brookburn Road home for another five years.

It was the club's third row with nearby residents since 2021, after previous battles over floodlights and alcohol licenses. The bid from Wythenshawe Town FC was given the green light by Manchester council, despite one neighbour’s worries.

“The noise from the field is bad enough, and has [been] getting worse over the years to the extent at one point last year it sounded like there was a funfair outside my front door/loud music and shouting carried on that day until 9:30 pm,” a council planning officers’ report said, in summarising the objection.

“Please don’t forget this is a residential housing estate full of mostly older people and young children.” The summary added the neighbour thought fans would use ‘estate car parks’ on matchdays, and rubbish has been ‘dumped in the hedges’.

The council’s highways department reviewed the application and believed retaining the 20-space club car park would be sufficient for demand, and the authority’s environmental health team concluded noise levels were not bad enough to ‘warrant the imposition of a noise condition’.

The new stand and toilet block would be built where spectators already watch matches, meaning ‘it is considered that providing a structure to house the spectators may help reduce the overall noise levels