PACKERS FIELD UPDATE - July 2006
Packers Field Update July 2006
Your Field Needs You
PACKERS FIELD PUBLIC MEETING MONDAY 17th
JULY, 7pm, THE CITY ACADEMY, RUSSELL TOWN AVENUE
The campaign to keep Packers
Field a free, open space for public use is still in progress.
A public meeting has been arranged for July 17th at the
City Academy, where the future of the field will be
discussed. A lot of questions about the future of the field
remain unanswered, specifically around public access and
the final plans for the site. This meeting is an opportunity
for members of the local community to inform and involve
themselves. Any person who is interested in the future of
Packers Field is strongly encouraged to attend this meeting,
all are welcome. It is not too late to express your thoughts
and concerns about this important local space.
Download
a flyer for this meeting here (PDF File 41KB).
Packers Field is a valuable
community resource. Looking at the field any evening or
weekend you will see many people using the field for a wide
variety of lawful leisure activities. As you may or may
not know The City Academy, Bristol leases the field from
Bristol City Council (BCC) and is now planning to develop
the site.
It appears that this work
to develop the field is going to start this month. The Academy
has not been clear about whether the entire field would
be closed during construction, but conceded that this was
almost certainly going to be the case. The works covered
in this initial phase are; major earth-moving to level the
field; the laying of top soil and then reseeding in the
Autumn. At the same time the Academy will be erecting fencing
in the form of 6ft railings. The changing rooms won't be
started on until next spring. The access for the contractors
carrying out the work is going to be through Johnsons Lane
rather than Gordon Road.
The bottom line is that
this field will not be available for anyone until autumn
2007. After the work and the erection of the railings the
Academy will have complete control of access onto the field.
This means that free and open access is likely to stop this
summer, probably just as the school holidays begin.
What is the future of Packers?
It is proving difficult
to get answers from the Academy about the real future of
Packers. Some key issues that local people have been concerned
about ever since they heard about the Academy's proposals
still remain unclear:
Where will the entrance
be? Previously it was planned to have a new entrance off
Gordon's Road, however recent information has proposed that
cars and coaches will use the current entrance on Johnsons
Lane. This appears to contradict one of the conditions of
the planning permission, which stated that access would
only be from Gordon Road. Does this mean that the Academy
have changed the plans without telling anyone?
There is also the issue
of the fencing. This was originally planned to be 8ft high,
the Academy recently said the fencing would be 6ft railings.
We believe that the fencing should be low-level anti-vehicle
fencing. In fact at another school playing field site recently
given planning permission by BCC the fencing is to be 3ft
high country estate style fencing. If this is suitable for
the new Fairfield school why is 6ft high fencing needed
for Packers? There is also the issue of the potential athletics
training facility (see
below).
Community Use Agreement
The Academy is required
to have in place a document called a "Community Use
Agreement" which will define who can have access to
Packers Field and when. The Community Use Agreement is meant
to give the local community security of future use. The
Academy have produced a draft document which has been reviewed
and does not offer the community any such security. As a
result it has been suggested to the Academy that a different
Community Use Agreement is used that will clearly lay out
how the Academy should give the local community free and
open access to Packers Field. It is hoped that this alternative
Community Use Agreement can be used as a starting point
to gain agreement with the Academy. The actual CUA being
proposed to the Academy is available on this website (click
here). The basis of this alternative CUA is the
demands of local people set out in February's public consultation
(see below).
Planned use of Packers
as an Athletics facility
Recent investigations have
discovered that BCC are still proposing to locate an athletics
training facility comprising a 6 lane, synthetic athletics
track with floodlighting in the area in front of the pavilion.
In fact Cllr Kiely stated that athletics would soon be back
at Packers at the Academy meeting held in March.
Mines
During extensive research
into the proposed development, we discovered what we felt
were some potentially serious health and safety implications
with the site, specifically the existence of abandoned mine
works underneath the site. It also seems that the planning
process had failed to address these issues adequately. We
raised our concerns with the Health and Safety Executive,
who were unable to assist as abandoned mines are not in
their area of work. We also informed Bristol City Council
and the City Academy, both of whom have demonstrated little
interest. We feel that such potentially serious health and
safety implications were being dismissed lightly, and are
further alarmed and frustrated to find that there was no
3rd party to look at our concerns seriously and objectively
(More specific
information about this is available here).
Where Now?
A number of local residents
and groups are monitoring the Academy's plans in order to
secure a better result for the local community, ensure that
this green space is not lost and so that local people can
continue to use Packers. Some of these local people carried
out a community consultation, which was presented to the
Academy and local councillors. A petition asking for the
points below was signed by nearly 85% of the 114 people
that were asked:
