November 8, 2022 9.00 pm This story is over 19 months old

Villagers fighting pigeon shooting range expansion

Plans have ‘gone down like a lead balloon’
Promotional images of Brandon Woods Shooting Ground, which is applying for extended shoots | Photo: Facebook

Lincolnshire villagers are “up in arms” over plans to expand clay pigeon shooting.

Brandon Wood Shooting Ground, between Fenton in Lincolnshire and Newark, applied for permission to increase their events to 150 days to a year. This would be triple the current arrangement.

Parish councils in the surrounding village have all objected to the plans.

The chairman of Brandon Wood Clay Shooting Residents Association, which monitors the shooting, described plans as a “massive intensification”.

“In Fenton, half the people are up in arms. The other half have moved here since the shooting has been going on and don’t appreciate that it isn’t normal,” he said.

“It destroys peace and quiet in the gardens. It isn’t like living near a railway where you get used to the background noise.

“You have 10 minutes of peace and think they’ve finished, then it begins again. You are never quite sure when they’ve stopped.

“The Brandon Wood Clay Shooting Residents Association have argued that allowing this application would be a massive intensification of the current permission.

“It’s fair to say that the plans for 150 shoots a year have gone down like a lead balloon.”

Shooting is currently allowed 50 days per year at Brandon Woods | Photo: Facebook

The Fenton resident, who has lived in the village for more than 35 years, added: “We didn’t go to the nuisance – the nuisance come to us.”

The association has asked that clay pigeon shooting be kept to 50 days a year, for a maximum of four hours per day.

They have also called for a strict 55 decibel limit.

The shooting ground is less than 2km from the villages of Fenton, Brandon and Stubton.

There have been previous applications to increase the number of days which have been turned down.

The application claims that the perimeter helps to “contain and absorb noise from the shooting activity”, and extended shooting would not have a “detrimental impact” on the surrounding community.

The resident’s group say they’ve been informed that the application will be determined by South Kesteven District Council next week.

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