RESIDENTS fear a picturesque area will be ruined by dazzling lights if plans for a multi-sports pitch are approved.

After already having its plans for the pitch rejected, Durham School has resubmitted them to Durham City Council.

It wants to convert an existing rugby pitch, adjacent to Archery Rise, into an area suitable for hockey, netball and tennis, enabling the school's rising number of girls and the wider community to use it.

To maximise its usage time, the school wants to site eight, 13m floodlights around the pitch's perimeter.

But local residents fear these would cause light pollution and create a blot on the landscape close to Durham's world heritage site.

Professor Brian Whitton, 67, of Archery Rise, said: "The floodlights are really very high and it would be very bright light. They are also going to be visible from quite a large area of Durham - a distance of one-and-a-half to two kilometres.

"It's a very major floodlighting scheme, and it will be major light pollution."

Prof Whitton said he was concerned that too little detail had been included in the plans and too few people informed of them.

"I don't think the governors or the school realise the full impact of what they are doing," he said.

"A much more thorough environmental appraisal of the impact of the light should be undertaken before they go any further. The council only informed about eight people in the street but it really does affect a large number of people."

Prof Whitton said that after hearing of the plans, several residents had written to the council expressing their concerns.

"Durham is a sensitive city and care should be taken."

Neil Kern, the headteacher at Durham School, said the lights would only be used in the early evening. He said: "We are aware that lights would be a sensitive issue but modern lights are very directed and there's minimum spillage. The planners have informed those people who they thought would be affected, and other than the very close houses, people won't be affected."