Churchill Playing Fields Action Group
Special meeting report Tuesday March 8th
Look! We've got a special page! Thanks Christobel. About 15 to 20 people attended the meeting with several apologies from people who wanted to attend but were unable to. There was a quick report on the situation so far and then people had a chance to make suggestions. Then volunteers for a working/action group were asked for. Of the people at the meeting, Sue Hinde and Christobel volunteered to help with some of the work needing to be done. Allan Keane is going ask questions of the sports people in Oldham with regard to available funds. Mark Brakspear is going to do a bit of ferreting around to get some suggestions about how to use the upcoming local elections to our advantage. Ray Green is going to chat to someone in the football club to try and see if we can work as a unified group rather than factions working against each other. Does any one have any contacts with someone in the rugby club? Jane Gleeson is also being very helpful with her experience and knowledge gleened from Greenfield and Grasscroft RA. Roger was unable to attend the meeting last night due to work commitments, but he has already volunteered his services for what I suppose I should call the Action Group. I am keen to involve other people from the community in our plans too as this does not just effect us. Di Moore, a parent from Diggle, who organised the petition is keen to help so I have asked her if she will join us and help with the publicity. Early Tuesday evening Sue Hinde brought a civil engineer that she knew down to Churchill to look at the drainage problem. His opinion is that raising the level of the pitches is an expensive way of doing the job. He says that it would be quite easy and much cheaper to re dig the culvert and put in a network of drain trenches. This would also mean that the pitches would not be out of use for so long and the track could be left relatively undisturbed. This survey is not official but it gives us an idea of an alternative solution. At the moment Sue Hinde is finding out how much it would cost for an official survey. She is also requesting a copy of the council's survey. Don't hold your breath! Attached to this post is a copy of a report aimed at the District Partnership but circulated widely among the coulncillors and press, written by Rob Knotts, an Independent Councillor in Oldham. Spare 10 minutes to read it if you can. It is brilliant!
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| CHURCHILL PLAYING FIELDS.doc | 990.5 KB |
Comments
playing fields funding - and how to do it
http://www.sportengland.org/about_us/places_people_play_%e2%80%93_delive...
A funding stream from sport england.
Possibility of more Churchill discussion at another DP meeting
I believe the issue of Churchill Playing Fields will be discussed at the District Partnership meeting this Thursday 17th March at Diggle Band Club (starts 6.30 p.m.) It may be interesting to hear what councilors say.
It's not definite that the issue of Churchill Playing fields will be discussed but I think it maybe worth attending so we don't miss an opportunity. That is of course unless Saddleworth Runners have been invited already.
Important Meeting Thursday 17th March
Saddleworth and Lees District Partnership, the ones behind the proposal to get rid of the track have a meeting tnis Thursday March17th, 6:30, Diggle Band Club.
Roger and I had a meeting on Monday wth two of the independent councillors, Ken Hulme and Rob Knotts and they tell us the meeting on Thursday could be used to pass the proposals for the playing fields. If there are lots of people there they might get cold feet and delay making the decision. They must think they are going to lose votes over it in the May Local Elections.
A delay now would be great news because the District Partnership is all Lib Dem and they might realise that an angry reaction from the residents of saddleworth will make it unlikely they will be re-elected in May. Also a delay might kick the proposals into the long grass where it will stay until after the elections.
People at the meeting will not be able to speak unless invited to do so but there is no law against muttering, heckling, jeering etc.
We can also wait outside and hand out leaflets to the councillors as they go in. Plackards of the 'Save our Track' variety will be good if you can manage it. Colin this could be the moment for the coffin with the death of Churchill Track on it. Do you have time before Thursday?
All you parents with children could bring them along and gather outside until everyone has gone inside and then you could beetle off home if you want.
No running vests this time as we are trying to promote the action group as an all Saddleworth affair, not just the running club so we want it to be unclear who are runners and who are not. Hopefully there will be lots of parents there and members of the Rotary too. We can't fight this on our own so spread the word!
The work party that we set up last Tuesday night is now morphing into Churchill Playing Fields Action Group (CPFAG). The feeling is that we don't want to just concentrate on the track but the whole of the playing fields so the name needs to reflect this. (Sorry Christobel, the name on the web page will have to change) The action group is now becoming more representative of the residents of Saddleworth and has a couple of parents and a member of the Rotary attached.
Please do your utmost to get there by about 6:15 on Thursday. Come late rather than not at all.
Update 22/3/11
Sorry about the delay but I have been to depressed to write anything until now.
First of all thank you to the people who were able to make it to the meeting. It certainly made it better for me to have some friendly faces around. Our plan to demonstrate to the councillors as they came in went a bit pair shaped as they had mostly arrived much earlier for a meal before the meeting. Still we got our pictures taken with our banners and Dan went in a handed the leaflets out to the councillors for them to read while they drank their tea.
Churchill came up on the agenda and there was a stage managed bit where the representatives of the local sports clubs (football and rugby only) were invited to explain why the acceptance of the proposals was so important to them. I had to stand up and insisit on putting forward the running clubs point of view. The excuse for excluding us from the consultation in the first place was that they did not know we existed(!) Now they are just choosing to ignore us.
The meeting wasn't a public meeting so technically, unless you submitted a question 4 days in advance, you could not speak. I did manage to get a few points in but it did little good as the vote was taken and it was passed with just 2 abstentions.
It wasn't all bad news though. I was given permission to talk to the head of integrated youth at the end of the meeting and with much help from Liz we managed to argue out point about keeping space for the track in the lay out. Neil Consterdine (that was his name) was fairly sympathetic and thaought it would be feasible to keep space fora track but he obviously didn't think he had much influence.
Christobel also did a brilliant job of cornering the rugby and football reps as they left and asking them what they thought about it all and got a favourable response, especially from the Rugby chap Terry Flannagan who was going to check out if the layout of pitches being put forward by the council were their idea or a stipulation of the Football Foundation.
The plan was for Roger to organise a meeting of CPFAG and plan the next moves but unfortunately he has been called away to the states with work so it looks like it will be next week now. Meanwhile I am getting myself motivated to begin the next round of letter and email writing.