Chelmsford City

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Melbourne Pitch and Lighting Latest

Clarets Chairman Mansell Wallace has issued a plea to supporters to assist with the next stage of pitch preparations to give Monday night's FA Trophy clash with Crawley Town, kick-off 7:45pm, the best possible chance of going ahead at the second attempt as the club also celebrates good news about an upgrade to Melbourne's floodlighting.

Fans are invited to bring their garden forks and wellington boots to the club at 6:00pm this Friday evening to help drain the pitch of current surface water, with further downpours expected over the weekend. Predictions made on Monday that snow covering the surface would melt naturally have proved accurate, now Mansell is desperate for assistance with the water removal to reduce the effects of future showers.

"There is currently a lot of standing water on the pitch so anyone with wellies and a fork would be welcome to come and help us spike it under careful supervision on Friday evening," explained the Chairman, who was in celebratory mood after a planning application to improve the levels of floodlighting at Melbourne were passed by a Council Planning Committee on Tuesday night. "We're aware of the likelihood of further rain at the weekend so it's crucial we remove what's already fallen in the last few days."

Providing sufficient work is carried out on Friday, plans are afoot for the surface to be rolled on Sunday, with lines to then be painted on Monday. Meanwhile, supporters should be able to see the action a lot clearer against Crawley as work is well underway, and will continue over the weekend, to increase the efficiency of the Stadium's lighting and reduce the unnecessary spillage of light into the surrounding neighbourhood.

According to documents accompanying Tuesday's application: "The light levels emitted by the existing floodlights at the Centre have deteriorated to an extent that they will soon no longer be capable of providing the lighting levels required for the range of community uses and particularly for Chelmsford City Football Club.

"In order to facilitate the Football Club's potential progression into a higher league a better level of lighting is required. The lights currently need to be increased to a 278lux, which would meet the higher Category A requirements of the FA National Ground Grading criteria."

"The proposal results in a total of 54 floodlights (an additional 4 lights). However, although there are additional lights proposed the resultant new arrangement enable fewer floodlights to be used to illuminate the pitch and track.

"The scheme is therefore more efficient in terms of focusing lighting on the specific areas required to be lit as well as reaching the higher standards required by the Football Club.

"It is therefore considered that any impact on residential amenity in the area will be little different than the situation which currently exists, if anything there will be an improvement as the lights will be more focused and efficient so as to limit light spillage and inefficient usage."

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