The Keep Westbridge Park Green campaign group has responded to Stafford Borough Council’s new plan for the park.
The council’s Cabinet will discuss the new proposals – which include play areas, a new leisure and an 11,000 sq ft M&S Simply Food store to help pay for it all – at their meeting on Thursday 11th December. Agenda and Cabinet reports are HERE.
The borough council revealed their new plans for Westbridge Park last week – full details are HERE if you haven’t seen them yet.
Keep Westbridge Park Green (KWPG) today issued their response to the new plans in these four points:
1. KWPG has represented residents in arguing for the Park to be dedicated to leisure and recreation as intended when it was passed to Stone UDC by Joules. Specifically, we have argued for enhanced leisure facilities, improved play areas, landscaping, walks and picnic areas – and for the preservation of green spaces to accommodate the annual festivals. These developments to be funded from community charges and other existing SBC income streams.
2. KWPG welcomes the fact that the latest proposals preserve green space, safeguard the festivals, incorporate enhanced leisure facilities and promise improved play areas. To this extent, the wishes of residents have been respected and the prospect of the Park disappearing under concrete and Tarmac appears to have been averted.
3. However, residents made absolutely clear through a local petition and the Council’s own consultation that they do not wish to see any retail development on the Park. This wish has again been ignored. H.M Inspector appeared to support this wish when noting that the location of the Park lent itself to leisure rather than commercial use.
4. H.M Inspector also noted that the need for additional retail capacity in Stone was not proven and that if SBC wished to revisit the idea of a retail outlet in the Park then it should do so at ‘site allocation’ stage’’ when the merits of alternative sites in and around Stone could be objectively assessed. We are unaware of any such assessment having been carried out and suspect that if it was, the Park would not provide the preferred location.
A KWPG spokeswoman added: “We are consulting with local residents and once we have done so, we will issue a further statement.”
You can see all of our coverage of the Westbridge Park issue over the last couple of years HERE.
9 comments
Peter Calvert
As a regular user of Alleyne’s pool I know it cannot last forever. This seems to be a pragmatic proposal much better set out than the original ‘we want to build something somewhere’ one. No local authority has unlimited funds today and if this is blocked we could end up with stay as we are which doesn’t bode well for swimming or a proper children’s play area at Westbridge
Andy Lowe
Practical not piratical!
Andy Lowe
Development is key to the economic growth of any town so i think the plans are great. That said! i think Westbridge Park is a beautiful site and it would be a great shame to see it covered in tarmac. Is there not a more piratical site that can be used?? one of the industrial sites maybe or some unused land just outside of the town?.
Ed
Why can’t we have a similar development that Uttoxeter has? I.e., a cinema, bowling alley, ice rink!!! There has been plenty of comments regarding “what facilities or amenities are there for younger people in Stone” recently, maybe this is an opportunity that ticks both boxes….leisure and commercial investment. With the ever increasing population that is planned for Stone this is also an essential.
Jon Banks
Without the retail development, there would be no funds to build the new leisure centre. The retail development will part-finance the building of the leisure centre (just the same as Stafford’s leisure centre). If KWPG had not noticed, SBC is cash-strapped and would not be able to fund the development on their own. Let’s move forward and stop living in the past !
Tim
Not so sure about that. The Council talk about a £6m development, don’t they? Well, the land they are saying they will sell to M and S will bring in nowhere near that amount.
Jamie Summerfield
Hi Tim. You’re right. We’re not sure how much that land will be sold to M&S for, but it won’t be £6 million. The borough council say that their investment in the project is their biggest in a project for decades. It’s a combination of borough council investment and the sale of the land that will equal the £6 million
Tim
It will bring in around 10 per cent of the total, I think. Find that amount elsewhere and use the park as intended.