Plans approved for new cricket facilities at Sunderland's Ryhope Recreation Park

Back in 2021, Sunderland City Council lodged an application with its own planning department for the improvements at Ryhope Recreation Park.

The park is already home to a range of sporting and recreational facilities, including a football pitch, bowling greens, tennis courts and a children’s play area, as well as landscaped gardens.

New plans were linked to the cricket ground at the park and aimed to upgrade the existing batting practice cage with more modern facilities.

At a public meeting on Wednesday, January 5, the plans received unanimous backing from the city council’s Planning and Highways (East) Committee.

According to a report prepared for the panel, the plans will replace the existing batting practice cage which is “deteriorating and worn.”

Councillor Michael Dixon welcomed the proposed facility and described it as an “excellent project and application.”

“The current facilities are in a state of disrepair and the nets are not fit for purpose and I’m pleased that a new synthetic surfacing is going to be included,” he told fellow councillors and officers at the meeting.

“I think it will be a nice application to encourage, as I’m sure Ryhope already does, pupils from Venerable Bede nearby and getting a lot of the kids in that practice area.

“I’m very very much in favour of this and it’s good to see progress being made with facilities.”

The batting cage would be erected within the same location as the existing facility which lies adjacent to the existing tennis courts.

It would also include the laying of a “new synthetic surfacing and cage framework.”

A report prepared for the Planning and Highways (East) Committee adds: “It is clear that the proposed development seeks to provide new and upgraded sporting facilities within the confines of the existing site.

“In doing so the works are considered to fully accord with the aims of local and national policy in terms of facilitating active and healthy lifestyles and in the provision of safe and accessible sporting facilities.”

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