I was under the impression that a field had to be a certain distance away from a public right of way, be that a road or a footpath or what ever, 50 something (not sure if it was metres or feet) springs to mind. Now I would have considered it common sense that the field was netted at its outer boundaries if it were anywhere near the edge of a site.
A Tippmann Flatline barrel is supposed to have an effective range of 250ft, i.e. 72.6 metres, and a Millennium field is 55 metres long, It is possible to shoot the opposition off the break at this distance with a slight upward trajectory. The theoretical distance a paintball will travel depends on too many variables, wind speed and direction, elevation etc.
However, how effective is netting, it will stop the majority of balls, but most of us will attest to having had a hit through the netting at some time or another!
Surely, if your local council has expressly allowed this site to construct fields close to a public right of way, with out any netting and without recourse to UKPSF guidelines, then should there be an accident the council will be liable along with the site. If they are then at fault and you are already following UKPSF guidelines then how can they make life difficult for you????
To be totally honest, if I lived next door to a paintball site, the noise aside, if my lawn was being filled up with gelatin capsules or my car was being splattered with orange/blue/green/yellow/pink paint on a weekly, let alone daily, basis then I would be pretty pished off!