{"success":true,"data":{"id":"f0463838-4ed9-4db3-ade8-027ef4ac37f1","title":"Row erupts in New Forest over cricket club’s ‘appalling’ plan to install artificial grass","summary":"US Edition Change Support Now × \"Clear search box\") Custom Search Sort by Relevance Date NewsNews SportsSports CultureCulture LifestyleLifestyle MoneyMoney TravelTravel PremiumPremium ClimateClimate More More Thank you for registering Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site t...","content":"US Edition Change\n\nSupport Now\n\n[×](javascript:void(0) \"Clear search box\")\n\nCustom Search\n\nSort by\n\nRelevance\n\nDate\n\n*   News[News](https://www.independent.co.uk/us)\n\n*   Sports[Sports](https://www.independent.co.uk/sport)\n\n*   Culture[Culture](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment)\n\n*   Lifestyle[Lifestyle](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style)\n\n*   Money[Money](https://www.independent.co.uk/us/money)\n\n*   Travel[Travel](https://www.independent.co.uk/us/travel)\n\n*   Premium[Premium](https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium)\n\n*   Climate[Climate](https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change)\n\nMore\n\nMore\n\n### Thank you for registering\n\nPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in\n\n# Row erupts in New Forest over cricket club’s ‘appalling’ plan to install artificial grass\n\n## Opponents claim the upgrades will ‘harm the Forest’\n\n[Dylan Bilyard](https://www.independent.co.uk/author/dylan-bilyard)Monday 27 July 2026 17:21 BST\n\n*   Copy link  \n*   Bookmark  \n*   [Comments](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-forest-cadnam-cricket-club-b3022441.html#comments-area)Go to comments  \n\n## Bookmark popover\n\nRemoved from bookmarks\n\nClose popover\n\nClose\n\nPowered By\n\n10 Sec\n\n286\n\n00\n\nNew Forest pigs feast on acorns in centuries-old tradition\n\nNext video in\n\nNext\n\nKEEP WATCHING\n\nRelated video: New Forest pigs feast on acorns in centuries-old tradition\n\n### Your support helps us to tell the story\n\nFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. 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We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.\n\n**Your support makes all the difference.**\n\nA spat has broken out in the [New Forest](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/new-forest) National Park over a [cricket](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/cricket) club’s plans to install artificial grass and expand a pavilion.\n\nNew Forest commoners – a group of landowners who take care of [the animals in the national park](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-forest-ponies-equine-flu-b3006614.html) – have slammed the “growing ambitions” of the Cadnam Cricket Club.\n\nThe club wants to extend its pavilion by a “tiny” amount to accommodate changing and toilet facilities for women, children, and people with disabilities.\n\nIt has submitted a planning application to the New Forest National Park Authority, which has prompted a furious reaction from the Commoners Defence Association.\n\nChair Andrew Parry-Norton described the plans as “appalling”.\n\n[](https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/the-5-hour-rule-the-quiet-habit-that-shaped-a-trillionaires-mind)[The Richest Person Alive Spends Five Hours a Week on Something Most People Quit in School Blinkist Magazine | [Sponsored](https://popup.taboola.com/en/?template=colorbox&utm_source=eslmedia-theindependent&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=alternating-thumbnails-stream-1x4:Mid%20Article%20Thumbnails%20II:)[Sponsored](https://popup.taboola.com/en/?template=colorbox&utm_source=eslmedia-theindependent&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=alternating-thumbnails-stream-1x4:Mid%20Article%20Thumbnails%20II:)](https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/the-5-hour-rule-the-quiet-habit-that-shaped-a-trillionaires-mind \"The Richest Person Alive Spends Five Hours a Week on Something Most People Quit in School\")\n\n[](https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/harvards-top-professors)[Harvard Professor Recommends: 5 Books He Would Reread Again and Again Blinkist Magazine | [Sponsored](https://popup.taboola.com/en/?template=colorbox&utm_source=eslmedia-theindependent&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=alternating-thumbnails-stream-1x4:Mid%20Article%20Thumbnails%20II:)[Sponsored](https://popup.taboola.com/en/?template=colorbox&utm_source=eslmedia-theindependent&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=alternating-thumbnails-stream-1x4:Mid%20Article%20Thumbnails%20II:)](https://www.blinkist.com/magazine/posts/harvards-top-professors \"Harvard Professor Recommends: 5 Books He Would Reread Again and Again\")\n\nopen image in gallery\n\nCadnam Cricket Club wants to expand its pavilion and install artificial grass(Dave Bodymore/Solent News)\n\nHe said: “Cadnam Cricket Club has always been a small New Forest cricket club – but now their ambitions seem to have grown much larger.\n\n\"We have tried on a number of occasions to engage with the club and make sure they have an understanding of their obligations to the Forest. This has been met with little success.\n\n“This is not the right location and it will harm the Forest – but the club seems to be determined to ride completely roughshod over everything.”\n\nThe club has also submitted details relating to planned pitch improvements, which include an artificial cricket wicket, which it plans to install this summer.\n\nThose plans were granted conditional planning permission by the NPA in 2023.\n\nA letter from the club said: “This would have a mat surface 30m long and 2.74m wide. It would be used mainly for practice by club members but also for matches played mainly by the ladies and junior teams.”\n\nAndrew Parry-Norton is the chair of the Commoners Defence Association(Solent News)\n\nHowever, Mr Parry-Norton said that this was also widely condemned by commoners.\n\n“To put artificial grass down on an ancient Forest lawn is utterly appalling,” he said.\n\n\"We did not know about the application when it was submitted but cannot comprehend what the NPA were doing when they approved it.”\n\nThe extension plans were supported by the local parish council and the NPA tree office, which backed the construction proposals because the plans would have no detrimental impact on any trees.\n\nThe application has also been endorsed by [Natural England](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/natural-england), which said that the proposed development will likely have no significant effects on the the New Forest Special Area of Conservation.\n\nCadnam Cricket Club came under fire from commoners in 2025 after it failed to reopen its pitch to grazing stock in the autumn, and was also criticised for using heavy machinery on New Forest lawns and allowing “illegal parking” on match days.\n\nThe club was founded in 1880, with matches played at Lambs Corner since the 1950s.\n\nThe club plans to install an artificial wicket, with a mat 30m long and 2.74m wide(Dave Bodymore/Solent News)\n\nChair Paul Godfrey said that the area would not be what it is without the hard work of its past members.\n\n“The ground was wasteland before, and then men of the village cleared the site by hand,” he said.\n\n“It was never grazing land, it was waste land – after the war when they were rebuilding the roads this is where they dumped all the hardcore.\n\n\"It is only the lawn it is now because of what the men did in the 1950s to clear the site and create a pitch to play on. Every now and then we dig out bits of broken slab.”\n\nMr Godfrey said he had been engaging with Mr Parry-Norton since he took up the role of chair.\n\nHe said: “We have meetings here with Minstead Parish Council, Copythorne Parish Council and Andrew Parry-Norton, and we have always said ‘what can we do to work together and how can we keep everyone happy?’.\n\n“The extension we are proposing is tiny – it is only there to give disabled people and women a place to change.\n\n“I understand that commoning is an important part of the Forest but so is the chance for people to have opportunities to play sport.\n\n“While I respect that [the ponies have been here for a while](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-forest-stallions-warning-drivers-visitors-breeding-season-b2749915.html), so have we – we are part of the Forest too.”\n\nCadnam Cricket Club currently boasts more than 100 playing members(Dave Bodymore/Solent News)\n\nThe plans would add just under 25 square metres of floorspace to the pavilion, bringing its total footprint to just over 166 square metres.\n\nIn a letter to the National Park Authority [NPA], Mr Godfrey said: “Currently, the ladies and colts under-18s are changing in the toilets which is totally unacceptable in this day and age.\n\n“With the increased participation of ladies, the club would like to construct changing rooms specifically for women and disabled people to include baby changing facilities.”\n\nThe club currently runs five Saturday adult mixed gender teams, a ladies softball cricket team, one ladies hardball team, and four colts teams, as well as a Sunday friendly and a midweek team.","source_name":"The Independent","source_url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-forest-cadnam-cricket-club-b3022441.html","url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-forest-cadnam-cricket-club-b3022441.html","author":"Dylan Bilyard","author_name":"Dylan Bilyard","published_at":"2026-07-27T16:21:32.000Z","publication_date":"2026-07-27T16:21:32.000Z","image_url":"https://static.independent.co.uk/2026/07/27/12/51/40-PER-PIC-PER-USE-PLEASE-DO-NOT-REUSE-WITHOUT-CHECKING-WITH-PIC-DESK-9f2cbd44.jpeg","category":"world","topic":"world","tags":[],"political_bias":null,"bias_score":null,"confidence_score":null,"credibility_score":null,"factual_quality":null,"reading_time":6,"word_count":1200,"view_count":0,"breaking":false,"breaking_news":false,"ai_analysis":null,"fact_check_status":"unverified","archive_status":"hot","language":null}}