Stafford Borough Council has put its leisure plans for Westbridge Park on hold following the results of the public consultation.
The council issued this press release today (Tuesday 19th March), which is published here in full:
Plans for a new leisure centre at Westbridge Park are on hold following a consultation with people in Stone and the North of the Borough.
The main issues arising from the consultation were proposals for a food store on the park and fears over loss of open space. Speaking today (Tuesday), leader of the borough council, Mike Heenan, said: “It is obvious from the feedback that people would rather not have another food store in Stone – but they do support better leisure facilities. An independent report said there was scope for a further food store but we are happy to look at the figures again.
“We will be setting up a liaison group with representatives from key organisations in the town to look at how we improve leisure in Stone and are also investigating putting Westbridge Park into a trust to allay residents’ fears of large amounts of green space being built on.”
More than 1300 people responded to the official consultation on new leisure facilities for the park. The proposals included a new state of the art leisure centre with swimming pool, play facilities for youngsters and an improved area for annual events. The council said to fund the development a small part of the site would need to be sold for a food store – with all the money raised from the sale reinvested in Stone.
As part of the consultation around 750 supported the proposal with 471 against. A further 104 wanted more information before making a decision and 37 did not answer the consultation questions.
However the Keep Westbridge Park Green group gave people information as part of their own campaign – and handed in more than 700 forms on the afternoon of the final exhibition. Of those who took part in their campaign, 689 were against the proposals compared with only 11 in favour.
Councillor Heenan, continued: “From day one I said I would listen to what the people of Stone had to say as part of a properly run and transparent consultation.
“Although the campaign run by KWPG was outside the official consultation, and was essentially a campaign against another supermarket, their returns nevertheless represent a significant body of opinion and I am not convinced that there is sufficient support for the scheme in its present form.
“A food store on our site would have given us much needed funds to improve the leisure offer in Stone. We expect to get an application for an out of town supermarket shortly but unfortunately it will not provide the money required to deliver state of the art facilities we wanted for Stone.”
He added: “Our aim is to improve the leisure offer we have in the north of the borough and it is now unlikely that we can deliver the proposed flagship leisure facilities.
“I thank everyone for taking part as this was an important consultation concerning the future of the town. And I’m sorry for those who supported the idea and wanted to see new facilities in Stone.”
Thousands of leaflets were sent to homes across Stone and a number of exhibitions held in and around the area to gauge the response of the community in the market town and the villages it serves. Dedicated pages were set up on the council’s website to give information and answer frequently asked questions and allow people the opportunity to comment online. The consultation team also met with festival committees, park user groups and other organisations in the town to talk about the proposals.
Residents were shown proposals for a new 25m swimming pool, a fitness gym and aerobic studios, new play area and teenage facilities on Westbridge Park. The plans meant the guides, scouts and canoe club would remain on the site and the open space and events area would have been retained and improved so that it could still host popular annual events such as the Food and Drink Festival, Stone Festival and Bonfire Night.
The council pledged to put in a substantial amount of money into the scheme – based on savings achieved from new, more efficient buildings and bringing leisure facilities in Stone onto one site. But it meant the project would require funding from selling off a small section of the council-owned park to developers for a food store – which would have been smaller than the town’s existing Morrisons.
The consultation ran throughout February and ended on Wednesday 6 March.
On Tuesday night, Keep Westbridge Park Green issued a statement. Again, it’s published below in full:
KWPG welcomes the comments from the leader of the borough council Mike Heenan and the decision to withdraw the proposal to build a supermarket on Westbridge Park in recognition of the opposition of local residents that was confirmed during the recent consultation exercise.
KWPG’s concern for the future of the Park is based on the proposal to designate the Park as a zone for mixed use development. It was this proposal that resulted in the petition signed by 4,771 residents demanding removal of mixed use designation so that the Park could be safeguarded for leisure use.
We now call on the Council to remove this mixed use designation in the final version of its Local Plan.
We note and welcome the Council’s decision to investigate the formation of a Trust that will safeguard the Park and look forward to the outcome of the investigation.
KWPG has consistently advocated improvements to the Park and its leisure facilities and welcomes that confirmation that the residents of Stone support such improvements but not at the expense of the loss of parts of the Park to commercial activities. We remain open to working with the Council to explore means of achieving this objective.
24 comments
mark
Hi Rob, do you have a list of the Council’s Capital Investment Projects? Are they proposing anything in Stone (other than the MUGA)? How do you get local schemes on the Capital Investment programme?
Rob Wise
Gemma
please check your facts. The park in Mike Heenans ward is having £ 250000 of CAPITAL INVESTMENT. NOT A S106 agreement. An inconvenient but easliy checkable fact.
Rob Wise
Phil Jones and his barrel scraping metaphor is like a lot of what he says. Not totally accurate. The Borough council are just about to spend £250000 on the park and play area in Mike Heenan the council Leaders’ ward. Economical with the truth again Phil.
gemma
Rob, where has the funding come from to fund the new park in Cllr Heenan’s ward? I suspect it has come from s106 funding, which is exactly what was proposed at WBP. However, s106 funding is only payable by the developer following the granting of planning permission and there is the dilemma. If Stone doesn’t allow development they don’t get any s106 funding. Stafford residents on the other hand have taken a more sensible and pragmatic view to development, hence why they are now seeing the benefits of fantastic leisure improvements that Stone can only dream of. Final point, the BC does not have a statutory duty to provide leisure facilites and, therefore, they don’t have to make any funding available. In light of the above Rob, could you please explain to me what is inaccurate about Cllr Jones’s statement.
Jack Taylor
At the end of the day DEMOCRACY has taken its place in Stone and we have ALL had the chance to have our opinion. In this world you dont get everything you want, do you? If you really want this go to the council, speak for yourselves and make your voice stand out! There is no point moaning on here as the council ain’t going to look here are they?
gemma
Jack don’t you think the local plan making process is democratic?? The local plan process allows BC and TC members to vote on it and everyone in society to make comments. Also, the consultation process is transparent and open and all comments in support of the local plan or against are accurately recorded and available to the public. I wonder if that was the same for those petitions collected by KWPG during their stint on the High Street! Erm! Also the local plan process will be considered by an independent inspector who will consider all the evidence for a new foodstore and leisure facilities and all the comments received during the various consultation events over the local plan process, which has taken place over the last 2 years (not a couple days in the high street). Finally, based on this decision they will make an informed, objective decision…..thats how democracy works Jack and the process is not over yet!
Jamie Summerfield
They may well do Jack!
Louise
I agree with Gemma. Also Cllr Jill Hood has spent weeks telling people that a big supermarket was being built on Westbridge Park yet it could be a food store which is alot smaller, when i asked Cllr Jill Hood on the last day of the consultation in the high st if she definately knew it was going to be a big supermarket,she said “NO”, so i then asked her what if i was a Food store, she said “THAT WOULD BE OK” so i then asked her why has she spent weeks scaremongering people into thinking there is going to be a big supermarket when she admited herself that she didn’t know what it was going to be,Cllr Jill Hood couldn’t answer me.I was then approached by a very rude man who ranted at me saying why should we provide for the rich people?? Very random and stupid thing to say! Like i said to the man, it doesn’t matter wether it was a Tesco,Waitrose,M&S or asda they would suit some people, and why should rich people not be able to shop local.Many folk in and around stone have worked damn hard for there money and are entitled to shop where they like. M&S are known for there quality of the food and as far as i’m aware they are not overly priced either.I also know someone who does food lab testing for M&S and i can tell you that they are definately at the top! So at the end of the day thanks to Cllr Jill Hood not only could many people loose out on getting a store that is needed by many, our children and families could loose out on play and leisure facilities. But you will be ok won’t you Cllr Hood as the 3 day F&D festival will still be on where you purchase food & drink, you know that stuff they sell in a food store! all year round!
This should be started all over again for maybe a week and done properly from the start!
Cllr Philip Jones i would like to say that it sounds good, but it’s crazy the fact that all the facilities that could be and funded by the store, this would then mean that Mike Heenan could scrape that barrel and sort out the ABC park at walton that has been run down to nothing.We need more facilities in stone for our children and youths ASAP somewhere well equiped and safe! Let’s face it too that many people have moaned about just about every new build in stone over the past 30 yrs but look at it, it all gets used and has helped many people out, road layouts,shops,houses,flats,retirement homes the list could go on and on. I could understand if WP was going to be flattened and all houses built on it, i would object myself, but it’s not. I had someone approach me saying she wouldn’t be able to see the clock, i didn’t realise they had proposed to build a skyscraper.. one old lady said she didn’t want to see more play equiptment at the park for young children. Unbelievable, maybe our children should all go back to playing kirby and balls hitting cars and going in peoples gardens, oh no they can’t because nowadays they would probably get done for tresspassing or criminal damage,unlike when i was younger and all the neighbours were friendly and all the kids were playing out in the streets and going ton the ABC park which had loads of equiptment back then and was really busy all summer.Or they could go back to playing hopscotch chalking the squares and numbers on the floor til the rain washed it away, but oh no they can’t because they will get fined for graphitti. If only my children had the chance to grow up like i did.
Kate
Louise it is getting boring having to read your personal attacks on Jill Hood I’m surprised this site is giving you another platform. She stood in the High Street representing the people who voted her on to the council exercising her duty to them every day for a week. Where were you? You could have done exactly the same but chose not to. Hard work reaps rewards something you should remember.
Steve
This and the decision to reject the application to build adjacent Nicholls Lane: Seems the voices of the people of Stone are being listened to. Great.
Philip Jones
Your readers will be pleased to know that yesterday I spoke with Mike Heenan and asked him to scrape the barrel so that the teenage multi-games area could be built. He has now agreed and this will go ahead.
Philip Jones
County Councillor, Stone
Ian
I fear it will need much more than this councillor. I suggest someone starts looking carefully at the amount of capital investment in Stone over the years and corrects the imbalance.
Andy Osgathorpe
As it stands at the moment, SBC recognise the wishes of the majority on this issue. Interestingly enough the majority of Stone Town council don’t and actually supported the development; an interesting dilemma for them. So, SBC decide to “put on ice” the project, but the “mix use” intention for the WHOLE park still remains in the “Plan for Stafford” as does the revoked “protection” of the right hand site of the park. So what has actually changed? … Well not an awful lot really. SBC trying to save their political faces; that’s all. The legal intention still remains in the plan. It just that SBC aren’t go to do anything about it at the moment. Well, nothing changes there then. That’s the reason why we are in this position now. The real challenge for them is provide the facilities that are required without the supermarket on the Park. Are they up to the job? As for scraping the barrel (for the “Multi games area”); isn’t this what SBC have been doing over the past 20 years? Again nothing changes there either.
…Just a reminder SBC “run” these facilities. Not KWPG or Councillors Hood and Kenny. These are the only councillors to champion the wishes of the people which SBC have ignored until this point or so they would have us believe. On ice? Until when? I ask, until when?
Jack Taylor
Dear Mr Jones,
Please send me through any details on a new teenage area on my email: taylorjack2010@hotmail.co.uk Thank you 🙂
gary
That is not an acceptable gesture and is a mere drop in the ocean with what had been proposed, your comment would suggest that the scheme has not been put on hold at all. Will it not be going to the independant inspector ? I would doubt very much that they would take the results of the consultation and base their decision of a plan that complies to the NPP on them alone.
gemma
Thank you Cllr Jones for explaining what SBC will now have to do to get any leisure facilities in Stone “scrape the barrel”. We had an opportunity to get a lot of funding by allowing a small loss of greenspace, which would have provided Stone with first class leisure faciltiies. What are we left with now? An ageing leisure centre, which still needs to be replaced and is an eyesore. A MUGA thanks to SBC scraping the barrel and possibly a new play area. We are still left with a poor utilised area of greenspace that has inadequate drainage, a blue eyesore and an unattractive approach into Stone.
Hood, Kenney and KWPG hang your head in shame.
gemma
Withdraw? The proposal been withdrawn, the actual term used is put on hold, plus it continues to be inclided in the draft local plan as a mixed use allocation.
Why did the 4771 sign the petition, was it against the whole park being zoned as a mixed use allocation, or was it the fact the kwpg incorectly told people that the whole park would be developed for housing and retail. they later retracted this statement and wrongly claimed 27 percent of the park would be lost.
Also would be grateful if someone from kwpg could explain to me where the 4000 people that originally signed petition because only 700 people made an objection.
I look forward to the ingenious ways that kwpg are proposing to fund leisure improvemtns to Stone without any funding. S106 funding is a well establised funding mechanisms, however kwpg do not seem to understand its concept.
Ian
You know very well that mixed use was on the whole park and that is why 4771 people signed the petition.
Thanks for drawing attention to the fact that the council has not indicated that it has withdrawn this mixed use term. I assume the battle continues.
gemma
Ian. SBC have allocated the whole of the park for mixed use, owever, it was possible to object to this, whilst still supporting the proposed foodstore and improved leisure facilities on the brownfield element of WBP. As you should be aware only a small area of greenspace is shown to be lost on the plans that were to subject to consultation a couple of weeks ago. As such, i do not agree that a foodstore (or leisure) is being built on the park….
I, like others, made representations in support of the proposals at WBP with the proviso that the mixed use allocation should only include as much land as required to deliver the foodstore and improved leisure facilities (broadly as shown on the indicative plans) and the remaining area of greenspace, which would have been improved as part of the proposed development, protected for public open space. Did you do the same, or were you one of those people that said no to all development, therefore, leaving Stone with no improved leisure facilities and the very real threat that a foodstore will be built elsewhere in Stone!
gemma
Ian, you’ve still not answered my question as to why kwpg felt it necessary to refer to housing in their petition or where they got the 27% figure from. Surely, if yours, and KWPG’s concerns are correct (which they are not) the mixed use allocation of the whole park would result in the total loss of the park, which as i’m sure you know equates to 100%.
So, please explain to me what is kwpg against, because im not sure they know! Do they object to the mixed use allocation of the whole park, or the unstantiated views that 27% of the greenspace will be lost or is it because they don’t want a foodstore or housing. KWPGs argument has changed so much over the last few months that i can’t keep up!
Chris Grayer
Stafford SBC listening at last – well we will see.
Well done to all of those who have put in so much effort to rejecting this totally and ill advised unacceptable scheme. Now is the time to consider as to how the wasted spaces in the Town Center can be developed through the alternative schemes without selling “off the silver” to truly develop Stone as “Canal Town”
Kate
These were the words spoken recently by Mike Heenan
“Although the campaign run by KWPG was outside the official consultation, and was essentially a campaign against another supermarket, their returns nevertheless represent a significant body of opinion and I am not convinced that there is sufficient support for the scheme in its present form.”
KWPG downloaded the official Stafford Borough Council questionaires and members stood in the High Street every day for a week . I went to their stand and with a few others asked questions about the development. A borough Councillor turned up and got very angry at people who didn’t agree with him. On the Saturday I also heard a woman who was supporting the supermarket standing at the KWPG stand shouting at a man who didn’t agree with her. The Alleynes students who were in a competition in the market square had a man who described himself as a volunteer for Stafford Borough council telling them they were wrong to be against a foodstore but they weren’t intimidated by him and he gave up. I never saw KWPG members raising their voice or trying to pressure anyone in fact I stood at the stand for a long time and wasn’t approached by them I had to ask them if they would answer my questions. It seems that the democratic process is being ignored by a number of people on this site who haven’t had their own way. Instead of verbally attacking Hood and Kenny why not do what the’re doing and try to get the best out of this now. Already a teenage facility has been promised that’s just the start. The Beatties consultants asked almost everyone if they would like to be on the group who would decide on future facilities it could be a group of hundreds as so many were asked.I’m glad there will not be a supermarket on westbridge Park and sad that people FOR cannot realise that no matter what is, or was, said to the people of Stone about this project . THEY HAVE MINDS OF THEIR OWN AND WILL VOTE AS THEY THINK FIT. SO STOP TRYING TO PRESS INTELLIGENT PEOPLE INTO HAVING SOMETHING THEY SAY THEY DON’T WANT.
Ian
Absolutely right. A great town suffering from inadequate effective investment (and no a supermarket on a park is not suitable investment). Do not buy the council argument that they need to sell the park to afford a leisure centre. Councils all over the UK manage it without having a oark to sell. Allocate the funds and get on with it.
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