There are fears a generation of youngsters could miss the chance to play rugby locally because of a dropped court case – and a change to planning laws that could leave Petersfield Town Council with a £330,000 bill.

Figures from town’s rugby and football clubs pleaded with a PTC committee last Thursday evening to fulfil a neighbourhood plan aspiration and create two rugby pitches at the Penns B site.

Work began on the council-owned site between Tilmore Brook and the Taro in 2023 after a change of use planning application was approved.

But an allegation was then made about a rare dormouse habitat being destroyed, with four people later appearing in court. And while that case was eventually dropped, the delay means there’s now questions over to whether planning permission has elapsed or remains active.

Requirements to Biodiversity Net Gain have changed in recent years, with PTC estimating it would have to spend around £330,000 on offsite environmental improvements if the original caveats aren’t in place.

And in the meantime PRFC desperately needs the extra pitches as it struggles to accommodate its growing number of youth and female players.

“We’re getting close to a situation where we cannot take any more kids given the need and space we have,” said Cllr Rob Mocatta on behalf of PRFC, before encouraging PTC to get independent legal advice from a barrister.

“We could have 500 children playing rugby and we’ve got about 400 at the moment, but that figure doesn’t include all the adult players.

“I would ask you, as a committee, to agree there is a need for more sports pitches in the town,” added Ben Bentley of Petersfield Town FC.

“We have two of the largest sports clubs in the county: Petersfield is a sporting town. I urge you to prioritise this.”

Cllr Lesley Farrow seemed to agree and urged the Sports, Recreation and Environment Committee to think of the children and their sporting opportunities.

She said: “The whole project was to provide a playing area for youngsters – then it went to court because a certain lady from PeCAN suggested something about dormouse.

“I don’t mean anything wrong, but we’ve got people that want everything to be flowers and fluffy. But we’re talking about one field and we’ve got lots of beautiful areas like Rotherlands.

“The day when the town juniors have their big competition there is amazing and it’s one of the biggest in the country.

“To risk that is wrong.”

Cllr Anne Stephenson, who chaired the meeting, said the committee was not prepared to make a recommendation until PTC has clarification over planning permission, with Penns B also being talked about in confidential session.

She said: “The law has changed since planning permission was granted and work started.

“Now we have a large amount of money that would have to be found to take on the fact that we’re losing biodiversity by doing this work.

“We need to find out the situation with planning permission.”