|
|
 |
| |
Park needs to show schools will pitch in
Development faces ‘demand’ test
PARKS bosses are under pressure to prove schools will use planned five-a-side football pitches in Regent’s Park before a controversial development wins approval.
Under environment laws safeguarding public parkland, the Royal Parks and sports firm Goals Plc must show there is “proven demand” for the scheme from schools.
Under the plans, 60-70 trees would be axed to make way for nine caged, five-a-side pitches, a car park and a bar.
The scramble to woo schools started this week with the Royal Parks releasing letters from Camden and Westminster councils’ sports units backing the use of the nine pitches, which are on offer to the community for 400 hours a week at a discount rate.
Westminster’s school sports partnership manager Suzanne Warren said the scheme could benefit 52 schools.
She added: “Fourteen of our schools are within walking distance of the park and there are many others who would be able to access the facilities using public transport.”
Her counterpart in Camden, Ian Warren, said: “The facilities could make a difference between actually participating or not, due to the removal of travel and transport barriers.”
A close inspection of the Royal Parks’ survey shows support for the scheme from schools in Hampstead, Bayswater, West Hampstead, Maida Vale, Victoria and Highgate. The only school within walking distance of Regent’s Park that will “definitely” use the pitches is Christ Church, in Redhill Street, Regent’s Park.
Campaigners who oppose the football pitch plans say the survey does not prove “need”. They are growing increasingly confident about overturning the application when it is heard by Westminster council planning chiefs on December 13.
Malcolm Kafetz, chairman of 1,200-strong Friends of Regent’s Park, said: “We have conducted our own survey and found that it is the private schools that can take advantage of the pitches. Schools simply do not have the resources to take children up there.”
The debate reached Parliament this week when culture, media and sport minister Margaret Hodge revealed the government had asked Royal Parks to increase its income by 10 per cent each year for the past seven years until it surpassed its £7 million target this year. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
