Campaign group to bid for land earmarked for M&S store

The Keep Westbridge Park Green campaign group will be aiming to buy the land on the park earmarked for a Marks & Spencer store in Stafford Borough Council’s plans to improve leisure facilities.

Last year, Stone Town Council registered the park as an ‘asset of community value’, meaning that should all or part of the space be put up for sale, community groups would have the right to be given time to raise the money to make a bid. The strip of land identified in the borough’s plans for a food store has now been put up for sale and KWPG registered their interest on 21st May. The group now have six months to raise the funds – thought to be around £750,000 – to make a bid.

The council revealed its new plans for the park, following public consultation in the town, in December last year. The plans include new play facilities and a new leisure centre, partly funded by selling the Westbridge Park tennis courts area to Marks & Spencer for a food store. More information HERE.

KWPG group wants to prevent any commercial development on the park and to preserve and develop its use as a tourism/leisure destination, which it says is more consistent with current use as part of the green corridor along the River Trent flood plain.

The move from the campaign group comes after Stone Town Council decided not to express an interest in bidding for the land itself at a General Purposes Committee meeting earlier this week. The vote was split along party lines, with Stone Independents wanting to see the council make a bid, and the Conservatives disagreeing. The vote not to put in a bid went to the casting vote of the chairman, Geoff Collier.

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After the committee meeting, Conservative town councillor Tom Jackson told us: “The Conservative members of the Council felt that it would be nigh on impossible to raise this amount in the short space of time available. We were also informed by the town clerk that we were unable to use any funds from the council tax for this purpose. It was also noted that should we make a bid, we would have no guarantee of success.

“We feel it is time to go ahead with the improvement of Westbridge Park facilities. While the majority of this is to be funded by Stafford Borough Council, additional funding is also coming from partnership funding programs like the sale of a small piece of land for a food store. The total funding for the redevelopment of Westbridge Park is in the region of £6 million and depends greatly on the cohesion of all the parties concerned. The people of Stone are going to benefit from their taxes to the borough and will gain massive improvements to the facilities in the town for all ages.”

Jill Hood, town and borough council and KWPG member, said: “I was very disappointed that the committee passed up the opportunity to make a bid, so Keep Westbridge Park Green will be doing this instead. We didn’t see Stafford Borough Council tell Wildwood they had to have a supermarket to fund their play area, or Stafford town residents they had to have a supermarket to fund Victoria Park. We are the second largest settlement in the borough with a massive amount of council tax going into their bank, yet do you see any new facilities anywhere? The answer is no. We are confident that we can raise the money needed to put in a bid for the land. We’ll be asking the public if they would like to own their own strip of the park and if they will help towards the amount needed.”

The move by Keep Westbridge Park Green does not guarantee success. The ‘asset of community value’ legislation just gives community groups the right to be given time – six months – to submit a bid. The campaign group’s decision means the borough council’s plans will be delayed for at least six months, and will ensure that the controversial issue of the redevelopment of the park’s leisure facilities – and whether there should be a food store on the park to help fund them – will continue to run.