A PETITION against a second all-weather pitch on Pinn Meadows is believed to be the biggest ever submitted to Hillingdon Council against a planning application.

After three weeks of frantic door-knocking around Ruislip, a team of 20 volunteers from the Friends of Pinn Meadows (FPM) has succeeded in obtaining 4,464 signatures against the plans.

The council said it would take some time to verify all of the names but the petition was understood to be bigger than any it had received.

FPM chairman Rob Cousins formally handed it in outside Uxbridge Civic Centre on Friday, where it was accepted by Councillor Bruce Baker (Cons, Eastcote and East Ruislip), who is supporting the residents in their efforts to thwart the Eastcote Hockey Club plans.

Mr Cousins said: "We have got a core group of members and we developed a website to publicise our work.

"First we sent flyers out and then we knocked on doors, we went to about 1,500 or 1,700 homes. We were also able to petition at the Duck Pond Market.

"There was overwhelming support from 95 per cent of the people we spoke to. What we have achieved in three weeks is quite incredible."

The hockey club has claimed it needs to build the new flood-lit artificial pitch on the meadows, known officially as Kings College Playing Fields, because it cannot currently host all of its matches on the existing pitch.

The club initially submitted its plans a year ago but withdrew them in February this year in response to residents' objections. The new application sites the pitch two metres further away from the River Pinn.

But Mr Baker explained why he would still object when the application is considered by the council's north planning committee early next year.

He said: "It is an over-development of the area and will cause an increase in noise and light pollution and worsen parking problems.

"I was quite surprised there was so many signatures but I am only quite happy to support the residents."

Mr Cousins, of Park Avenue, said despite the massive petition raised he thought the scheme could still be approved by the council.

"I am not complacent and we will continue to object right up to the day it goes to the planning committee," he said.