Football at Barnard Park on the multi-purpose Redgra pitch

• THE SaveOurSportsPitch group claims to represent the many but in fact represents a minority, albeit a vocal one (For the many not the few… but not at Barnard Park, May 26).

Having lived opposite the park for nearly 30 years I know that the pitch has had very little organised sports usage during that time but quite a lot of informal sports usage.

I use it for running but would not want to do so if it was re-laid with artificial grass, which is what the phrase “upgrading the pitch… in its current footprint”, used by the group, means. The present Redgra pitch, though now regarded as outdated, is multi-purpose, but artificial grass would not be.

The present proposal to give half the area of the pitch to those who want artificial grass for organised sport and the other half to those who want real grass for informal sport seems to me equitable.

There have been extensive consultations regarding plans for the park since at least 2006, following the international competition that year to redesign it, prompted by widespread recognition that the existing layout is unsatisfactory.

At that time organised sports groups made almost no comment, even though there was to have been little provision for them – not surprisingly since almost no organised sports took place there. Only quite recently have organised sports groups begun to speak up, and their interests are being recognised.

In Highbury Fields there are formal pitches for organised sports and grass surfaces where less formal team games occur. So could it be in Barnard Park.

My only quarrel with the current proposal is that the natural grass should be in the middle of the park and the artificial grass at the edge – not the other way round.

JAMES DUNNETT
Barnsbury Road, N1