A NEW super-strong protective fence is to go up around sports pitches at Nunnery Wood High School in a bid to defeat the yobs.

The Spetchley Road school has city council support over plans to construct a 2.4 metre-high paling fence around the multi-sports arena, all-weather pitch and playing fields.

City council planners have raised no objections to the new fencing and the county council is being invited to agree to it this month.

The school will remove its existing mesh wire fence, some of which vandals have cut through. It was constructed 12 months ago and only covers half the playing fields.

City council planners say the move will end the "merry hell" of yobs breaking in.

Coun Mike Layland said: "It is a sad state of affairs that the school needs to have any fencing to keep idiots at bay.

"I have nothing but sympathy for local people, because yobs have created merry hell for nearby residents by damaging the fencing for a shortcut or for reasons best known to themselves, and entering the playing fields."

Residents in Bradford Place, adjacent to school playing fields, and Chelmsford Drive have endured hooligans forcing their way through damaged mesh fencing and gathering at weekends.

The only request the city council has made is that when it is built, the fencing should be painted green.

The school's headteacher Alun Williams said: "We are absolutely delighted the city council supports it. The reason we want the fencing is simply for protection, because we do get vandalism.

"It will be very popular with local residents. Because the old fencing was broken, we'd get dog walkers in here, and students using the pitches often had to move dog faeces, so health risk was significant.

"Youths have also been causing a nuisance. The new fencing will cover almost the entire school. The only bit it won't cover backs directly onto people's gardens."

The county planning committee will discuss the plan on Tuesday, December 12.