Industry Raising the Bar-well
Covenant confers lasting protection
ACROSS Britain, clubs, fields and recreational grounds are busily trawling through old records to assess the degree of protection that may be already in force, especially when the spectre of redevelopment rises up.
Campaigners, fighting to protect Weymouth’s popular Marsh area playing fields from any move to redevelop it or build houses on the site, had cause to celebrate recently when they unearthed a deed of covenant that reportedly safeguards the sporting amenity for the future.
Weymouth and Portland council’s management committee had narrowly refused to back plans to submit the Marsh for QEII designation because of alleged “queries” including its potential "future development”. But records tracking back nearly half a century appear to prevent any prospect of that happening.
Case Study 2 - Dovecote Playing Field
Twenty-two teams play out of Dovecote Playing Field bid.
The search for funding is becoming increasingly difficult for the smaller club or recreational site, says Andy Ellis, clerk of Barwell Parish Council in Leicestershire, who, however, can report major success in the authority’s bid to fund significant improvements to Dovecote Playing Fields.
A QEII designated site, the field received £3,500 late last year under FIT’s County Funds programme.
The money is earmarked for drainage works, which are due to begin soon in what is a £120,000 year-long project that should boost playing conditions for AFC Barwell, which rents the field - the only one in the village - from the parish council and turns out no fewer than twenty-two teams on it, spanning the 4 to 17-year-old age range, so usage is intensive.
”Around seventy games were cancelled during the 2010/2011 season,” Andy recalls. “I can only imagine what the fines would have been.”
Club and council have collaborated extensively to seek, and attract, as much funding as possible to meet the six-figure capital outlay, but it isn’t easy, explains Andy.
”Professional grant-hunters know their way around the system but, if you are not one of these, there’s plenty of work in store for you in preparing grant applications. They’re all about including the right buzzwords.”
Which are? “Community engagement, Big Society, those kinds of words. You have to justify to them that you need the money. It’s alright just saying ‘We have a bit of a soggy pitch and it needs better drainage’, but that will not get you the funding.”
Barwell Parish Council cast its net widely in seeking help for what is planned to be a total project value of around £800,000. “The plan is to demolish the existing pavilion and replace it with one housing four changing rooms and bar, together with forty car parking spaces. AFC Barwell’s secretary, Karen Hollins, was keen to work with us to push the project forward, and we’ve been meeting every two weeks for the last year.”
The Leicestershire regional branch of the Football Association asked for a sketch of the proposals and confirmed that they were prepared to support the
38 PC JUNE/JULY 2012
The Football Foundation, who would grant-aid the project if the bid was successful, required a “full and thorough” independent feasibility study to be undertaken, Andy explains. “The specialist consultant tested the condition of the playing field and wrote a detailed specification of what would need to be undertaken as part of the drainage improvements, including levelling, reseeding and so on.
”Once the FA were happy that it met their standards, we put the ground work specification out to tender, so that we could progress this aspect of the total project as quickly as possible.”
They’ve been appointed and go- ahead for the pitch works was granted in May, with £470,000 funding given in principle by the Football Foundation, Andy adds.
AFC Barwell submitted a business plan to the Foundation, one that confirms the commitment by the club to a continuing programme of
maintenance for the upgraded playing field.
Bolstering the major tranche of funding is £50,000 from Sport England; £6,000 from Hinckley and Bosworth Parish Community Jubilee Fund and £10,000 from Leicestershire County Council Big Society Fund.
”AFC Barwell has been very active in raising funds,” Andy says. “It raised £6,000 in summer 2010 from an initiative called ‘I’m a Barwell manager, get me out of here’, which was sponsored by the local pet shop.”
What’s his top tip for fellow funding seekers? “Involve as many people as possible in the process. Rose, from Voluntary Action Hinckley and Bosworth, helped search online for funding sources and we found the Leicestershire Funding Tool Kit very helpful as a source of potential funders.”
As Andy stresses, Dovecote Playing Field might not have been under pressure to be redeveloped for housing (although the village itself is, he says) but dedicating it “early on” under the QEII Fields Challenge helped when approaching possible funders, whilst the covenant protects what is an invaluable sporting asset locally from any possible threat in the years ahead.
Campaigner Michael Wheller said: “We have discovered a Deed of Covenant dated June 6th, 1964 between the National Playing Fields Association and The Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis restricting the use of land to that of a Playing Field.”
The document was extremely specific and contains official seals signed by the council’s then Mayor, Sid Porter, and Town Clerk, E.J. Jones, he added. The covenant also includes a plan specifying the playing field area involved and outlining it, in colour, to ensure there would be no misunderstanding about which area was being referred to.
“The discovery takes the protected area at the Marsh completely out of council hands as far as future development is concerned, because they have no right to even consider that land for development when they themselves agreed, forty-eight years ago, that it should only ever be used for playing fields”, Weller concluded.
Wrangles over the playing fields have erupted more than once. In 1985, the council reportedly first supported and then opposed proposals to use the land for a new Weymouth football stadium, a nightclub and housing.
“This same covenant was raised then and now seems to have been conveniently forgotten,” declared co- campaigner Ann Axenskold. “This covenant should have been known about by the present council who ought to honour and respect their agreement rather than quietly forgetting about it.”
Fields in Trust has reportedly assured the campaigners that it will be uphold the covenant. Given that the 2012 Olympic sailing events are centred on Weymouth, news of a threat to the future of a nearby community sports facility might well have created red faces in the town hall.
http://www.viewfrompublishing.co.uk/news_view/19485/11/1/w eymouth-marsh-cannot-be-built-on-say-campaigners
Protected fields and open spaces improve their lot
Staining Millennium Recreation Ground, Lancashire - drainage and levelling Catterall, Lancashire - drainage of football pitch
Crambeck village playing field, North Yorkshire - levelling and resurfacing of the field
Shrewton Recreation Ground, Wiltshire. Established in the 1940s from community funds raised to welcome home men and women of the parishes after service in the Armed Forces during the World War II
Melton Country Park, Leicestershire - received a £1,000 grant towards a new football pitch;
King’s Stairs Gardens. London - described as a “unique and beautiful green space”, and is one of the few remaining riverside parks in central London with superb river views. Situated within the Edward III's Rotherhithe conservation area, it is part of the Thames Path and the Jubilee Greenway, and a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation. It is freely accessible by all, 24/7, well managed and maintained by Southwark Council's Parks Department. The park contributes to an unbroken green corridor from Surrey Quays to the Thames. The Jubilee Stone by the riverside walkway commemorates the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, replacing an earlier stone unveiled by the Queen on her Silver Jubilee in 1977.
And we just had to mention ...
Forever Young - Kirriemuir Hill, Angus, Scotland. Gifted to the local community by J M Barrie, author of Peter Pan, which overlooks the cricket pitch where he used to play.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148