Protest over balls crashing into gardens from hired-out Mulberry School pitch

Families fed up with footballs crashing into their back gardens and having to put up with players’ “foul language” have sent a petition to Tower Hamlets council to do something about it.

They want the soccer pitch that’s hired out every evening at Shadwell’s Mulberry School to be caged in to stop balls hurtling down at “high velocity” onto their property.

The householders in Hainton Close at the back of the school handed the petition to the Town Hall last Wednesday.

Petition organiser Ralph Candlish, who addressed the council, told the Advertiser later: “We get adults using the pitch every evening, seven days a week.

“The footballs come over the fence at high velocity—there’s no rest day after day from the balls or from the foul language that our children hear.”

The fence has already been raised after a previous petition, but the families say that didn’t stop balls coming over.

Now they want the pitch caged in with a roof net and sound-screening put in.

The families also want an end to the seven-days-a-week use of the pitch that’s hired out to City firms in the evenings and weekends.

“We have the right to enjoy our gardens at least one day a week,” added Mr Candlish. “They should at least let us have Sundays off. We get it seven days a week.”

Cllr Rabina Khan, who represents Shadwell, has visited the properties and promised to get the council to take action.