7th January 2010

CREWKERNE: Town green row escalates

By Marion Draper

HAVING taken the difficult decision to raise council tax for the coming year, Crewkerne Town Council has come under attack from the group that, they say, has forced them into a legal action.

The precept was raised to cover possible legal expenses arising from fighting the application for Henhayes recreation ground to become a Town Green.

Both sides are accusing the other of factual inaccuracies and ill-sought advice creating bad feeling and upset all round.

Those who applied for the Town Green status hoped it would block the building of the new sports and community centre planned to be between the Henhayes centre and the Aqua Centre and preserve the green area for all time.

The council was concerned that losing control of the area could lead to the loss of important sports facilities for the town and lack of maintenance of the area.

The town clerk wrote a letter before Christmas, to all those who had supported the application in a last minute plea to prevent the expensive legal action being necessary, in the hope that their applications had been submitted with the best of intentions but without full knowledge of the possible consequences.

The group who call themselves the Friends of Henhayes refuted the council’s fears and said legal action was uncalled for.

Teresa Bond, chairman of the group said: “Having read reports in the press that the Town Green application could have a number of serious consequences I sought advice from the county. The letter I received refutes accusations made by Crewkerne Town Council and belies the reasons given for the council fighting against our Town Green application.”

The letter Mrs Bond received from Wendy Burge of the Rights of Way Definitive Map Team from the Environment Directorate at County Hall stated: “In response to your specific queries my understanding is as follows. The town council would still be able to charge to use the facilities at the Aqua centre as it is an existing facility so use is already established.

“The County Solicitor has advised previously that ‘if the land is registered as a Town Green the public would have the lawful right to use it for sports and recreation. The owners of the land would not have the right to lease it to a particular club for them to use it to the exclusion of the general public’. The renovation of existing buildings should not be a problem as they are already established.

“I have been unable to find any information about management committees being a requirement of the land becoming a Town Green. The day to day management-grass cutting etc would, I assume, continue to be carried out in the same way.

“The Caravans and Control of Development Act 1960 states that ‘no occupier of the land shall cause or permit the land to be used as a caravan site unless he is the holder of a site licence’. It also enables a district council to make an order prohibiting the stationing of caravans on a town green.

“The only means of appeal against a decision not to register land is by application for judicial review.

“The town council has indicated they intend to object to the application and have asked for an extension of the time for the objection period. I have agreed to this, the revised date for them to object is February 5th 2010. There have been a number of other objections. Once the revised objection period is over, copies of all representations will be sent to you for comment.”

Mrs Bond continued: “I have received many telephone calls from recipients of the town clerk’s letter saying how upset they were to receive such a letter on Christmas Eve implying that they had done something wrong and to the severe detriment of the town.

“I am glad that having received Miss Burge’s letter I am now able to reassure them and other residents of Crewkerne that our application will not have the effect on Henhayes that the town clerk alleged.”

Resident Ron Spencer, who publicly came forward to withdraw his previous support for the Town Green, feeling he was misled, remained firm in his decision. In his opinion the letter from the county council made no improvement on the situation.

He wrote to Mrs Bond: “It was not the town council that issued the form which Helen Hall gave me to fill in, it was your organisation that produced it, and failed to include the details of the implications thereof.

“My decision still stands but I believe this can be settled to everyone’s satisfaction with a round table meeting instead of forcing the council to put a prohibitive amount on the precept which will affect every family in Crewkerne.

“I would draw your attention to paragraph two and four of the letter from Wendy Burge. Letters have to be positive, not assuming. Get interested bodies around the table and talk, that costs nothing.”

The parts of the letter Mr Spencer referred to concerned the comments that “the owners of the land” (the town council), “would not have the right to lease it to a particular club” and that it was “assumed” the grass cutting would continue. One of the concerns of the council was that they would no longer be able to charge the sports clubs to play on the pitches and organised matches could not occur, league status would be lost for the local teams and there would be no income to pay for maintenance of the field.

The letter was brought to the attention of the amenities meeting on Monday by Mrs Bond, who added to her previous comments: “I ask that the town clerk writes to the people again and remove her letter from the website, I don’t know why she would take advice from South Somerset District Council when they are not involved in the Town Green process and her letter is full of inaccuracies.

“It seems there is only one reason for fighting us and that is to get the sports centre built.”