Cricketers declare - no council office on our ground

And the tally was followed by a delivery as important as any bowled by one of the village cricket club's players, as the correspondence was handed over to planning officials at Arun District Council on Tuesday.

Villagers, members of East Preston's stoolball and bowls clubs and the cricketers and their supporters are among those who signed the letters opposing East Preston Parish Council's outline planning application for an office building on the Warren Recreation Ground.

Now the objectors hope the parish council will abandon the plans in the face of so much opposition to the scheme.

At a parish council meeting last week, chairman Len Barnett said the council would take another look at its proposals "if the public reaction is hostile".

The cricket club also put the parish council on the spot at a private meeting to discuss the office project.

Club captain Simon Locke told the Gazette: "We asked them if they would withdraw the plans if there were 500 letters of objection, and the chairman indicated that they would.

So now we have done that, we would expect them to honour their side."

Andy Reeves, the club's treasurer, said only two people of the hundreds approached had declined to sign the letter.

One was a parish councillor and the other a visitor to the village.

"With only those exceptions, everyone wanted to sign it. We had letters for people to sign in shops, businesses, the British Legion club and over the weekend on the recreation ground, when we were preparing for the new season," he added.

The club claims the office building, which also includes a meeting room, reception area and storage space, would be bigger than the cricket pavilion and would require the felling of a tree with a memorial bench to a former club stalwart.

Part of the new building, the club fears, would straddle the cricket outfield, although the parish council claims the office would take up only a small percentage of the ground.

No one from the parish council was available to comment.