Why isn't the playing field being used more by clubs? It is available for clubs and was used for many sporting activities previously. We are lucky to have this area set aside for recreational use and many people enjoy the open space there.
Wymondham Town Council, this is our parish council.
Playing fields in various locations in Wymondham are well maintained, why has ours been allowed to become run-down and not suitable for clubs? We pay the third highest precept council tax in the whole of South Norfolk because we are considered a part of Wymondham Town, yet we are a rural village. Other village-run parishes nearby like Morley and Bunwell have excellent assets.
The youngster's football club was driven off the playing field with excessive costs for white lining a pitch. I had been told that Wymondham Town Council demanded £460 a year for this service. So you can only imagine the message to these 9 and 10 year olds, "Hey kids enjoy your football but can we first have 30 quid each for the white lines".
The pavilion was demolished with no hope of a replacement, the floodlights allowed to fall into disrepair and the moles have been left to run riot making a decent playing surface a joke. We have a town council that plays lip service to promoting sport.
The last set of councillors seen in the village a few weeks back told a resident somewhat gleefully that "no one users the playing field any more". Wrong! The residents of Spooner Row and the surrounding communities use the playing field. It won't be long before someone makes a land grap for some or all of our playing field and when it happens it will be gone.
Now for some history (and older residents in the village may be able to firm up on my dates). I understand that the field was gifted to the then parish of Spooner Row Suton and Wattlefield back in the 50's by Routh Clarke, a land owner that had time for local people. It only moved into the hands of Wymondham Town Council when a Boundary Commission change resulted in us losing our parish and being absorbed into Wymondham sometime in the 70's. Somehow I cannot see the current major land owner/developer being so generous towards the village but I stand to be proved wrong.
WHAT !! This is scandalous. What does our parish/district councillor, Jack Hornby say about this as he would be fully aware of any potential changes to land use in his Ward?
We want our playing field back in proper well-maintained use, with realistic local hiring prices and teams playing on there again. What a disgrace, when were residents going to be consulted? This looks like it is going to be another Wymondham Town Council's Kings Head Meadow fiasco!? Who making these choices and decisions?
We do NOT want to lose our recreation ground or any part of.
thank you to who ever as this issue is becoming a hot potato as there is
a proposal to increase the size of the school car park and this will mean loss of amenity land although it will remain in the ownership of the Town council as the existing car park does and half the end area on which the portakabin sits where the play group are sited. It will cost.
a further possibility of the school taking over a section of field to become a dog free zone and permanent part of the school. In order for this to happen there will a need for legal documents to be drawn up and for money to change hands. From whom is not at all clear but free is not going to happen.
To use the field again for Sport is good but on most days the school uses the field so they might be less than happy about it being a rarely used football pitch
Can I ask that you you via this board let me know how you feel about all of these matters so I can raise them at WTC and feed them into the debate with residents views, as opposed to a discussion where possibly errant assumption(s) by some councillors are being made and voiced as fact .
I suspect some very strong views will be expressed but I do need some please
In the early '90's I was 'given charge' by the then Village Hall Committee to oversee the usage of the playing field. It was well used, well maintained and improved by several youngsters football teams; both boys & girls. The floodlights were installed by them, the portacabin was also brought on site by them, and well maintained too.
I am pretty certain that had the rent/leasing been kept to a sensible amount we would still have a thriving league.
If anyone want any more information they should visit Mr Mick Money in Wymondham & he will have all the facts & figures as he was the driving force behind the youth teams and worked very closely with them.S3APNYXPK3
I'm sure it was the 1930's when the playing field was acquired by Wymondham Town Council's predecessor for the recreational use of Spooner Row residents.
The playing field was viewed as a valuable local resource and would be best served with the financial running such as grass cutting costs were made by Wymondham Town Council. This happened a few years ago when urgent charitable funds had to be raised for the village hall's renovation and repairs. After this, the recreation grounds continued to run well and had representations from all its user groups, including clubs, residents and the school. This system worked very well. It was always a popular field for sports clubs to use. What happened? Local People enjoyed seeing and hearing the teams play.
Clearly, local people have been disempowered and disenfranchised in decisions with their recreation ground and this is another very good reason why we need to become our own community parish to manage it ourselves.
Whatever Wymondham Town Council is deciding for us for the future on our recreation ground, it clearly is being done in secret. Whether it is a sold off to the school, or more housing, a new road built on it for a car park extension, we do not want any of that as it will not benefit us, particularly young residents. If the school is extended then this will bring in yet more school traffic and cause more highway problems during the school run. Do we actually need an enormous car park extension to cope with the school run traffic, it seems more about the HGV route clogging up the road? Could there be other ways round this? This needs to be looked at thoroughly and local residents involved rather than the 'high and mighty' and 'we know best' attitude of WTC, which happened at Kings Head Meadow playing fields resulting in a local uproar and very rightly too!
Now that the school is an academy, can't it employ some parking monitors to reduce any parking problems at the gates and further down the road? We all want to see a thriving school, but it is the local recreation ground, established there for the enjoyment and exercise of local people in Spooner Row. Quite a few of the children attending the school don't even live in the village.
I am certain that the car park doesn't actually belong to the school, I think it is the Village car park, used by the school.
When we had the original recycling containers placed on it it, the money raised was shared between the Village Hall & the school. The materials for the extension to the car park, in the '90's, was paid for out of these funds. The work was mostly done by Villagers.
Does anyone have any documentation of this please,? Maybe archive Village Hall Committee Meeting notes.
All the recreation ground including the car park belongs to the parish council (WTC). The school paid rent for land use (the portacabin) and may still do so. The school only has use of the car park and has no more rights over it than anyone else.
... The pavilion was demolished with no hope of a replacement, the floodlights allowed to fall into disrepair and the moles have been left to run riot making a decent playing surface a joke. We have a town council that plays lip service to promoting sport.
The last set of councillors seen in the village a few weeks back told a resident somewhat gleefully that "no one users the playing field any more". Wrong! The residents of Spooner Row and the surrounding communities use the playing field. It won't be long before someone makes a land grap for some or all of our playing field and when it happens it will be gone. ....
I am extremely upset that a set of councillors recently visited the Recreation Ground and gleefully said to a resident that, "no one uses the playing field any more", after allowing it to become too run-down and too expensive for sports clubs to use. Were these very councillors the same ones that we, residents of Spooner Row voted for to represent us, within Cromwells Ward? I think not. This looks very much like our parish council at Wymondham Town is not working in our local rural interests with councillors from other Wymondham Wards involved in making plans for the future of OUR local Recreation Ground. Why wasn't any local people from Spooner Row invited for this on-site local meeting? Obviously, they don't want us involved - so much for Localism. Why don't they ask us about getting sports clubs up and running again or is the Recreation Ground destined for alternative uses?
Wymondham Town council's reputation went way downhill with their clumsy, inflexible handling of Kings Head Meadow, which is still on-going. Will they now be following this unsuccessful pattern of behaviour on Spooner Row's Recreation Ground? Who exactly is benefitting from this??? It's certainly not local people.
Over the years, the Eastern Daily Press regularly featured the Kings Head Meadow shambles. Take a look: http://www.edp24.co.uk/home/search?q=kings+head+meadow&resultsSearch=&sort=relevance
Can the anon post of 14th june who clearly has some knowledge of the original gift of the playing field to the residents of Spooner Row please contact me privately on 600720 or e mail me on julian.halls@talktalk.net. If you wish I will treat you contact as confidential.
Matters are coming to a head fairly soon and the school, now an academy, are keen to progress the idea of hiving off some of the playing field for the exclusive use of the school. Knowledge of the gift ( in the 30's) or better still the wording and terms are crucial as a first step/hurdle to cross.
I would like to see the village formally consulted on this matter but this is a decision for the Council not me alone, BUT I believe it is important that we have a clear view from the residents on this matter before we can even begin to discuss this proposal.
As background the current use of the field by the school , who pay a peppercorn 'rent' for the year is not restricted and I believe the current arrangement works well but I am not sure that OFSTED share this view and there has been , although not quite so bad recently, of doggy deposits not being picked and the associated health risks to playing children
I would suggest you speak to the Village Hall committee chairman and look at the records.
As I believe there is a document about the Hall and playing field being donated to the village to the benefit of returning soldiers from the 2nd world war.
The playing field (recreation ground) is looking in a very sorry state. The grass has not been cut for some time and there are muddy patches where molehills have been kicked and flattened. Why is this being allowed to become rundown and is this for some ulterior purpose? If so, has Wymondham parish/town council sought out if this is what Spooner Row people want? In fact, a lot of Spooner Row residents want the playing field back to how it used to be with the grounds properly maintained and clubs playing on there and at a reasonable price. This is the one asset that Wymondham parish/town council has to maintain for Spooner Row who pay the third highest town precept in South Norfolk (yes, we are all now aware of how very high it is), yet this is what we are getting on the recreation ground - this is not acceptable.
What comes across in most of the message threads is the feeling that residents feel powerless. Powerless to stop too many houses being built, powerless to make the village a safe place to live, powerless to make positive changes to benefit the residents (playing field). Being fairly new to the village (5 years), I had no idea about there once being a pavilion and clubs on the playing field! How wonderful that would be...as would an improvement to the children's playing area...there are some fantastic ones in surrounding villages!
This is a lovely, beautiful village. It is clear when talking to people that there is a sense of pride about where we live...but there is a feeling of having to sit back and watch decisions being made that negatively impact Spooner Row. For those that are involved with the Town Council and fighting to get our voices heard, thank you for the work you do.
You are spot on, we feel powerless and ignored by the unwanted decisions that are being made for us.
Any changes on the recreation ground need to be put before the residents of Spooner Row who greatly value their open space. But no doubt changes will be made and decided by our parish council which is controlled by the wants of the District Council (no Localism here). Loss of recreational open space due to parking expansion and school extension will be decided behind closed doors and it will be like Kings Head Meadow all over again.
As the school is now part of an academy, it would be best that any extension is made at a safer location. The Station Rd/School Ln/The Ridings multi-junction is not a satisfactory location for a school extension and residents are fed up with the congestion putting lives at risk!
If we become our own parish, we wonder if the recreation ground will be fit for purpose by the time they have finished with it and it is handed over to the new local parish council.
