We have invited 52 West Berks and 14 Newbury Town councillors to our pre-public consultation meeting on Thu 13 Sep at Document House.
See the letter below:
Dear
Councillor ######
What’s
the fuss about – Newbury doesn’t need a football ground – does it?
In order
to ensure that the people of Newbury get the chance to fully understand the
details of the recently submitted planning application for
a state of the art 3G pitch and new clubhouse
facilities at Faraday Road and to provide a forum where people can openly ask
questions, we have arranged a public consultation event on Thursday 13th
September 2018 in a meeting room at the Document House 7-9 Wharf St, Newbury RG14 5AN. Two sessions have been
arranged, one that starts at 6.00pm and the second one at 7.00pm.
Rightly
or wrongly we feel that the Councillors of West Berkshire Council and Newbury Town
Council are not fully aware of why a significant number of the local electorate
and their young families, think that it is really important to preserve and
enhance a community football ground in Newbury. As such we would like the
opportunity to arrange a meeting with you to discuss the key points and to
share with you with the evidence that makes this such a crucial and important
local issue. You are of course welcome to join either of the public
consultation slots mentioned above but if there is sufficient interest from you
(and your fellow councillors) we would like to invite you to a “Councillors pre
-public consultation discussion” at the
Document House 7-9 Wharf St, Newbury RG14 5AN at 5.00pm.
We
sense that the Council’s current position is entrenched in as much as a
“vision” floated a number of years ago could mean that the town’s only football
ground will be sacrificed to build 80 or so more flats near the town
centre. Some of the questions we are being asked are:
“Why
does it have to be either flats or the football ground – why can’t we have both
like every other town that I can think of?”
“How’s
this going to help with the health and wellbeing of the town. If the population
of Newbury keeps expanding don’t we need more and better facilities not less?”
“It’s
totally unthinkable that Newbury will no longer have a senior team playing in
the town – how come smaller towns like Hungerford and Thatcham can achieve this
and we can’t – what’s going on here?
“Newbury
community needs a football ground. Sport is an important part of life”
“Newbury
is a large town with few enough sporting facilities, this is desperately
needed”
“The
ground is looking a bit tired; can’t the Council invest in it to bring it up to
date?”
“I was
unaware that the Council had plans to demolish the ground – have they
undertaken a public consultation and asked the people of Newbury what they
think”?
“You’re
wasting your time – the problem is that this Council never listens to what the
public wants?”
“Not
even more flats! – Newbury’s fast becoming just a dormitory town”
“Doesn’t its Asset of Community Status (ACV)
status protect it from being concreted over?”
“If the
Council is hellbent on building on it are they not obliged to replace it before
any new development takes place?”
“What
do the FA and Sport England think of this – will they allow the Council to
build on a designated sports pitch”?
“Who
are NCFG and what do they stand for?”
“Why have
the Council closed the ground now? – it’s such a shame to see it empty and
unloved”
“I saw
the Council’s press release suggesting that they will re-open it as an
unmanaged turn up and play multi use 5 a side facility – whose idea was
this? who is going to use it, can it still be used for organised
matches?
“I’ve
never voted in a local election before, but in May next year, I will make sure
that I understand where my councillor stands on this specific matter”
This is really important for local democracy and we genuinely hope that
you can take time out to come along to “Councillors
pre -public consultation discussion” at the
Document House 7-9 Wharf St, Newbury RG14 5AN on Thursday 13th September 2018 at 5.00pm.
Please
be kind enough to reply to this email with a simple YES, I would like to meet
with you next Thursday 13th September at 5.00pm or NO, sorry but I am unable to
attend.
Yours sincerely
Paul Morgan
On behalf of Newbury Community Football Group (NCFG)
