A coalition of community leaders and leisure specialists has urged local residents to demonstrate their support for the planned Hadleigh Community Facility ahead of fencing going up around the proposed site next week (week commencing April 6).
Councillors from Hadleigh Town and Babergh District Councils and trustees of South Suffolk Leisure, which manages Hadleigh Swimming Pool, have warned the whole facility and the prospect of any new swimming pool is in jeopardy if moves to register part of the Stonehouse Road site as a ‘town green’ are successful.
The £2m Babergh District Council-funded facility – which will incorporate facilities for local groups and services for young people as well as a gym and dance studio – received planning permission earlier this year.
However, the development involves building on a small patch of open space land adjacent to the present swimming pool. Babergh has received just three objections to its plans, one of which raised the issue that this patch of land could be claimed as a town green as defined under a relatively new piece of legislation – the Common Land Act (2006).
A town green can be registered if there is sufficient proof that the small piece of land in question has been used by a significant number of people for sports and other pastimes without consent over at least a twenty year period.
If an application is successfully made it will mean that neither the Hadleigh Community Facility nor any future new swimming pool could ever be built on that site.
Babergh has been advised to erect temporary fencing, for a six month period, to mark off the land that would be needed for the Community Facility in order to gather available evidence as to whether the small patch of open space could potentially be classified as a town green or not. The fencing is due to go up on April 6.
Hadleigh Town Councillors said: “Hadleigh desperately needs facilities for young people in the town including both the Leisure Facility and Swimming Pool. It would be saddened if this small part of the site should be declared as a Town Green and future opportunities to rebuild the current pool are taken away.”
According to Tracey Copping, South Suffolk Leisure’s Chief Executive: “The Community Hall would help secure the longer term future of the Hadleigh swimming pool. The new facility has something for everyone and would be a valuable addition to the residents of Hadleigh and surrounding areas."
Cllr. Nick Ridley, Chairman of Babergh’s Strategy Committee, added: “Hadleigh deserves better than to see a £2m investment halted and the prospect of a new pool being written off for ever. That is why we are urging the community to demonstrate its support for both and to provide evidence that the small patch of land in question cannot reasonably be classified as a ‘town green’."
The two councils and South Suffolk Leisure are urging expressions of support to be sent to the local media and any relevant evidence to be sent to them as early as possible.ENDS
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