Residents opposing a lottery bid for floodlit sports facilities next to their homes have vowed to fight on.

The £1.6 million bid to upgrade the facilities at Otley's Prince Henry's Grammar School is being put together by Leeds City Council's leisure services chiefs and Manchester-based consultants Strategic Leisure.

The plans include refurbishing the school's Chippendale Pool, sports hall, tennis and netball courts.

Nearby residents, who added their names to a petition of 100 who signed last year, say they are determined to oppose plans for a floodlit all-weather pitch at the school.

But Councillor John Eveleigh says Strategic Leisure has responded to residents' complaints by arranging for the floodlights to be installed at the front of the building.

Coun Eveleigh said: "There is nowhere else that could attract the level of lottery funding. In an ideal world, a new site would be the best thing, but this is the only way we will attract the funding."

Margaret Bates, who lives in Newall Hall Park, said residents' suggestions for the sports facilities to be moved to Wharfe Meadows had been rejected because of vandalism there.

She added: "I'm just glad that our objections seem to have been taken on board and that they are talking about trying to resite the all-weather pitch.

"We don't want things to go downhill, because the public want these facilities. But I would back anyone who was going to have a development yards from their home."

Her fears were echoed by Gordon Slater, of Oatlands Drive, who is angry that the lights will loom only ten yards away from his home.

Mr Slater said his garden had been used as a short cut at one point by children from Prince Henry's, and fears that the problem will return when the doors open to the public.

He said: "It's the noise. Can you imagine what it will be like in the evening when organisations are there?

"It's obvious that they will shout for their own teams, and the floodlights will be on until 10pm.

"I'm not against anything they do with the sports facilities - the swimming pool's a disgrace - but if you look out from here the tennis court's right in front of you."

The bid has the full backing of Otley Sports Council and Leeds City Council. Town Councillors pledged their support for the lottery bid at a community development meeting on Monday night.

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