Sale of land robs children (From Stroud News and Journal)

Sale of land robs children

NAILSWORTH councillors have condemned the county council's 'smash and grab' attitude to public services.

At a meeting last week they accused Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) of selling off Nailsworth amenities to fund projects in other parts of the county.

And they warned that children could be robbed of precious resources after the sale of LEA land in Forest Green.

Sites owned by GCC, Nailsworth Primary School, Stroud College and Forest Green Rovers (FGR) are due to be consolidated to make room for a football stadium.

The largest section, a ten-acre playing field, belongs to the county council.

It is the home of footballers The Taverners, a number of children's teams and a Sunday league.

Councillors were worried that when the new stadium was built these players would have nowhere to go.

They were also worried that money from the sale of council land would not be put back into the community.

Environment committee chairman John Nicholson said: "The county council's attitude towards Nailsworth has always been 'smash and grab'.

"It grabs the money and runs."

He added: "We have been here before with county council property.

"It is essential that the LEA is not allowed to asset strip Nailsworth.

"It is totally unacceptable to see children's play areas disappear under tarmac.

"To me a new super duper stadium at the expense of The Taverners and the school is no advancement at all."

Stroud District Council chairman Sybil Bruce, also a county councillor, said she went into politics because of the way GCC treated the young people of Nailsworth.

She said: "One of the reasons I stood for any council was that Nailsworth children were deprived of everything."

She said one of her main concerns was that the town had no secondary school and no swimming pool.

She told fellow councillors: "If you think the county council is going to ring-fence that money, that won't happen."

Cllr Bruce said it is likely to be eight months before FGR make a planning application for a stadium.

In the meantime, she said, the town council needs to protect Nailsworth's interests.

But Mayor Lesley Williams-Allen said some of these fears were ungrounded.

She said FGR planned a stadium with a 4,000 capacity, not 6,000 as originally thought, so there would still be room for a football pitch.

In the future the town council and The Taverners might modernise the King George Playing Field pitch.

She agreed that by the time FGR produced stadium plans it would be too late to have a say about community facilities. "We have got a lot of work to do," she said.

"We have to work fast and we need a lot of help."

Before the county council sells off its land it will have to take part in a 13-week public consultation.

Nailsworth School governors will meet members of the Forest Green working group this week to discuss housing some of these wish list activities.

The next meeting of the Forest Green working group is due to take place on April 2.