Some councillors are concerned that central government might sometime force the District Council to build on some of our open spaces and green areas . Or perhaps we might get taken over by Southend or Basildon and they might want to develop our open spaces. There’s no obvious signs of it happening , but as we said, some councillors are worried about it.
One way around this would be to transfer the ownership of our open spaces to a trust , who would then lease them back to the council on something like a 999 year lease. The council could then continue to manage them.
On Sept 30th the District Council agreed in principle to consider transferring the following sites to one or more trusts:
Cherry Orchard Jubilee Country Park
Playing Field, High Street, Great Wakering
Clements Hall Playing Field, Hawkwell Common
Hockley Woods
Playing Field, Pooles Lane, Hullbridge
Playing Fields, Rawreth Lane , Rayleigh
Fairview Playing Field , Rayleigh
Brooklands Gardens, Hockley Road, Rayleigh
Grove Road Public Open Space and Woods, Rayleigh
Kingley Wood Public Open Space, Rayleigh
St John Fisher Playing Fields , Rayleigh
The remaining bit of the playing fields at the Old Park School site.
At the meeting Chris Black said he wasn’t convinced yet about this. The Lib Dems will keep a close eye on this and we will keep you informed.