Petition details
Bring Back the Basketball courts at Wapping Gardens
Examples of noise barriers for sports:
https://www.noiseair.co.uk/acoustic-barrier-for-sports-pitches/
https://www.jacksons-security.co.uk/acoustic-security-barriers
https://soundcontrolservices.co.uk/portfolio/acoustic-sports-blanket/
https://www.quietstone.co.uk/applications/noise-barriers/
Please bring back the basketball courts to Wapping Gardens.
This Petition ran from 12/05/2021 to 07/07/2021 and has now finished.
188 people signed this Petition.
Council response
We appreciate your concerns about the removal of basketball hoops from the Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) in Wapping Gardens. The basketball hoops were installed after the completion of the refurbishment of the MUGA as a new feature that was not previously available.
Sadly, however, we then received multiple complaints, primarily from older people, about the sound of basketballs bouncing on the ground. The complainants reported no issues with groups of young people congregating or with people playing football, but the ongoing noise of basketballs bouncing was causing significant distress to a number of older residents, and not specifically in the evenings. There certainly were no complaints about the behaviour of either the basketball players themselves or the informal football users.
The Parks team was instructed to take down the hoops. We then received multiple complaints about taking the hoops down, including the e-petition which you submitted to the Council at the meeting on 21 July 2021. Unfortunately, this situation demonstrates the conflicting interests of different sections of the community.
We have carried out an investigation into other sites where we could relocate the basketball hoops, restrict playing time and/or muffle the impact of the noise of the basketballs, as we appreciate that the removal of the hoops from Wapping Gardens is problematic for the residents who signed the petition. I attach the assessment that was carried out for your information.
In addition, the parks team has carried out an exercise to find
whether there is a way to install equipment that would only be
available part of the time, such as a retractable hoop mechanism.
We found that this technology has been developed in the USA but is
currently not available in the UK and would require a substantial
housing unit to store the hoops when not in use and that this would
not work in an outdoor setting. A further investigation was carried
out to find any other basketball equipment that could be easily
stowed away and again we could not find anything that would work
outdoors and be robust enough to withstand use without the need for
regular maintenance or supervision.
As a result of these investigations, the most viable options for a
basketball court in Wapping court are to:
a) Install noise abating measures (such as you suggested in your petition) and an automatic locking mechanism that would be fitted to enable the MUGA in Wapping Gardens to open throughout daylight hours and be automatically locked after dark in the evening. The viability and cost of this is currently being further investigated.
b) Relocate the court to an existing court in Hellings Street, Wapping which will require further community consultation as it is currently fitted with children’s height basketball hoops. We estimate that it will cost £35,00 - £45,000 to make that court fit for use by adults.
Once the investigation into a locking mechanism is complete, we will determine a way forward and we will let you know our findings. If you would like to put forward any further matters for our consideration, we would be happy to take these into consideration.
Finally, I am sorry that it is taking some time to resolve this matter but we would like to ensure that we find a solution that is cost effective, manageable and that addresses the conflicting interests of different sections of the community.
Judith St. John (she/her)
Director, Commissioning and Culture
Children and Culture