RESIDENTS are worried that the installation of an artificial football pitch will turn a Woodley park into “a Disneyland”.

Woodley Town Council, with support from the Football Association, plans to build a £250,000 3G football pitch on Woodford Park to offer children a place to play and support the town’s six football clubs.

Yet residents in Farriers Close, which backs on to the park, have raised concerns about noise and light pollution in the evenings when players practise.

Philip Bungay, who has lived in the cul-de-sac for 11 years, said: “We already get a big problem with the noise.

“The kids are often out quite late anyway.

“They’re turning this park into a Disneyland with everything that is going on.”

Former Reading University maths lecturer Barrie Dore believes he and his neighbours were not given enough notice about the project and has written to Wokingham Borough Council — which is yet to give planning permission for the project — about his concerns.

He said: “We think there will be more noise and on a much larger scale.

“There won’t just be people playing on it, but spectators making noise too.

“Some matches are almost reasonable but there’s often shouting and swearing.

“In the context of the park it’s going to be an ugly structure. By putting it in they are denying the public around 4,500 square metres for them to use.”

Woodley and borough council leader, Cllr Keith Baker, understands these concerns but believes the pitch will give the town’s schools and amateur footballers an alternative to Goals, in Woodlands Avenue.

He said: “Schools are finding it increasingly more difficult to fund going to Goals.

“We are hoping to get 50 per cent of funding from the FA and in order to get that we need to demonstrate it’s got support and will develop facilities.

“If you look at what they have done at Goals there is minimum disruption, and there will be less in Farriers Close because it’s surrounded by trees.”

Mark Rozzier, the chairman of Woodley Town Football Club, is fully behind the pitch and said: “It’s the way forward.

“I have got some sympathy with the residents but there are going to be decibel and light readings.

“I’m not sure how it works, but there is so much they can do to minimise noise.”