Nailsea School has been refused permission to use its floodlit outdoor sports pitches for more hours.

A planning inspector refused to change conditions imposed upon the school from when the pitches were opened seven years ago.

The school say it is ‘frustrated’ by the decision, however it is likely to be welcomed by many neighbouring the site in Mizzymead Road who objected to the proposal amid fears longer opening hours would mean more noise and disruption in their neighbourhood.

Nailsea School was given the green light to build a new all-weather 4G pitch back in 2008 as part of a major revamp project.

At the time, conditions were introduced which meant the facility – which is used outside of school hours – can only be used at certain points in the week.

However, the school last year asked for those to be changed to allow more people to use the sports pitches.

It wanted to introduce seasonal hours, which would mean the site would be open two and half hours a week more between May and July and also five hours longer for the rest of the year.

However, following a review by the planning inspectorate, the hours cannot be extended.

It felt that ‘the floodlights could be easily seen from the rear windows and gardens of (neighbouring) properties’. Although he agreed the windows and gardens were not ‘lit up’ as a result.

Chris Perry, Nailsea School’s operations manager, is disappointed that the application was turned down.

He said: “It is frustrating that the use of the facility cannot be extended to accommodate more of the community groups who’d like to benefit from the use of the all-weather pitch.”

A similar application to extend the hours of use was also rejected in 2012.