Furious families will enjoy Saint's winter shutdown

Nov 25 2009 by Andrew Newport, Paisley Daily Express

ST MIRREN bosses are to deliver a special Christmas present to fed-up families who claim powerful floodlights at the club’s new training ground are making their lives a misery.

Residents in Ralston had shown Saints chiefs the red card over the strength of the lights at the £1million training base and youth academy in Allanton Avenue.

Now the club are to call a halt to the vast majority of their youth training sessions for five weeks over the festive period in a bid to win over their new neighbours.

And the Buddies will also fork out a “significant” sum of cash to upgrade the lights in the hope this will avoid problems in the future.

St Mirren general manager Brian Caldwell said the move is a “gesture of goodwill”.

He added: “Following a meeting at Renfrewshire Council to discuss the issues raised by residents, we have taken the decision for the youth teams to take a winter shutdown and this will mean no night-time use of the astrograss pitch for all nights – except for Wednesdays – for five weeks from Monday, December 14.

“Hopefully, by the end of this period, we can have the lights situation resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.”

Paisley East and Ralston councillor Jim Sharkey, who lives just a goal kick-away from St Mirren’s new base, claims the current floodlights are so bright that nearby residents can read a newspaper in their homes with their own lights switched off.

But Mr Caldwell is confident the new floodlights will be less intrusive.

He said: “We are looking at new lamp-heads which will give off less glare and spillage to the houses.

“We have had a light pollution plan drawn up and have put that to the council. They are currently looking at it because we want their approval for it before we go out and spend the money on it.

“As soon as we get that approval, we will upgrade the floodlights.”

Members of the Ralston Residents Action Group have also raised concerns about excessive noise, a build-up of traffic and loss of privacy caused by the opening of the new training ground.

And they fear the value of their properties could be adversely affected.

But the Paisley club have drawn up a list of other concessions in a bid to win over angry residents.

As well as taking a winter break, the club will also call time on their kids’ training sessions at 9pm each night – half an hour earlier than normal.

They are also looking to install extra-high netting at the Duchray Drive end of the training ground to prevent stray footballs from flying into residents’ gardens.

A noisy generator has also been removed and the club’s mobile football pitches – which have previously been unloaded at the training base each night – are now to be stored elsewhere.

Mr Caldwell said: “We always wanted to be good neighbours. Hopefully, the local residents will see these gestures of goodwill as a positive step.”

Mr Sharkey has welcomed the efforts being made by St Mirren bosses to resolve the complaints made by residents.

He added: “For me, this has always been about St Mirren listening to their neighbours and, hopefully, this is the start of that process.

“Unfortunately, this doesn’t go all the way to answering the problems that are being caused but it is a start and I look forward to encouraging both sides to come to an amicable agreement.”