Weston near Crewe in Cheshire came
The village of
very close to losing their playing field when a new school in the area made the old field redundant.
(Cheshire) explains what has happened in the past four years and the village’s plans for the future.
David Pepper (what’s the worst that could happen) Chairman of the Weston Village Playing Field
Returning to turf after
groundsman for a local cricket club. It paid 50p an hour but had the added attraction of being able to access the clubhouse bar when no one else was around! I was obviously cut out for the job as the club secretary, who was also the school’s careers teacher, recommended it as about my only chance of paid employment! That was almost 40 years ago.
T
Ignoring the advice I set out on a ‘career’ in business that took me all over Europe and the Middle East and guess what? I am back on the turf - only this time as an unpaid volunteer. It happened like this… Four years ago Cheshire County Council decided to
o fund an oil leaking BSA motorcycle I took a part time job as the
give away the last open space in our village, Weston, near Crewe. This space had been the primary school playing field for as long as people could remember but the opening of a new school had made the old field redundant in the eyes of the County Council.
Not surprisingly a major
uproar ensued and, to cut a long story short (a story that you wouldn’t believe in any case!), the field was given back to the village. It took four years to get it back. To keep it safe for the future, the field was transferred to the NPFA (National Playing Fields Association) and a village charity formed to manage it. This charity now rents the field on a 99-year lease from the NPFA at the princely sum of £1 a year.
Now anybody with a knowledge of playing fields will understand that four years is a long time. The council did keep up the mowing on one half but the rest was left to run wild. Except that is for a small football pitch in the centre of the field. A group of teenage vigilantes had use a 14” petrol mower to keep this under control, every week during the growing season they had sneaked the mower from somebody's shed and spent two hours cutting their football pitch.
SO what now? Well with a grant from WREN via the NPFA we have started a 3 phase development plan. Already installed is a children’s playground, an extended all weather
40 YEARS
30
13
www.pitchcare.com/re
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