Conservative Party Political View Column: We must work together on Werrington Fields

On Friday of last week I sat on the Joint Meeting of the Children and Education and Growth Resources and Communities Scrutiny Committee to hear a ‘call in’ of the Cabinet decision to grant a long lease of an area of Werrington Fields (known as Area C) to the Ken Stimpson Academy.

The area is required by the school to ensure that pupils are safeguarded whist engaging in outdoor sporting activities. This makes perfect sense and as stated at the committee, I have great sympathy with the stance of the Head Teacher and the CEO of the Academy trust, and their ambition to increase the amount of sporting participation they are safely able to provide.

This is laudable – I’m sure we all want to see our kids out in the open, exercising and participating in football, cricket and many other sports field disciplines.

The fact that the space will also be promoted to sporting clubs in our city for use out of school hours and at weekends makes the intentions even more rational.

However I do have a niggling concern over the resistance on the part of the school leadership to look for a compromise option; the proposed lease allows an area which for many years has been enjoyed by the local community on a shared use arrangement to be taken away from residents.

Clearly over the passage of time we have regretfully lost the ethos of the 70’s when our townships were built with of great optimism and genuine intentions for the future of Community Schools doubling as community facilities after school hours. The change has been driven by valid concerns over safeguarding which have insidiously crept up on society over the intervening decades.

The combined scrutiny committee had an evenly balanced make up of Councillors from all parties, and the views of the academy management together with the concerns of Werrington residents who spoke on the day were heard, and fairly considered.

Following a proposal by my Conservative colleague Cllr Rylan Ray, councillors voted to refer the decision back to Cabinet.

The proposal also included a recommendation that the issue was taken to Full Council for further consideration, and that additionally further public consultation should take place.

For this to happen, Cabinet needed to agree to that process.

To assuage safeguarding concerns, by all means erect appropriate fencing; it’s not unreasonable to support the Academy to ensure it achieves the level of sporting activity it wants to offer, but in the spirit of good neighbourliness provide sufficient space to allow reasonable public access at the side or around the perimeter of the fenced area.

This would be the ‘win win’ outcome promoted by our previous MP, Paul Bristow, our current MP Andrew Pakes, the Werrington ward Councillors and I would estimate the vast majority of residents and parents.

Circumstances may well have overtaken this article as Cabinet are scheduled to consider the recommendation at their meeting on Tuesday afternoon, (some hours after the copy deadline for this article) which hopefully will see the decision taken back to Full Council for further debate and a revised recommendation to Cabinet.

If that is the case then democracy will have been well served, if not then suspicions of a done deal or land grabbing will gain increased traction.

Opposition is a serious responsibility, but working together is also paramount. Too often, we forget what we are in politics for.

We need to remember whose side we’re on, and fight for the values we know can deliver for those who place responsibility in our hands.

We must ensure we are as politicians are listening to all points of view.