CONTENTIOUS plans to bulldoze a popular public park and build homes fail to meet basic planning requirements, claims the pressure group opposed to the development.
The Save Oakfield group, which opposes plans to build 60 new houses on Oakfield Recreation Ground, has sent its objections to Rugby Borough Council.
They include arguments from the council’s Green Spaces and Parks & Grounds teams, Sport England, Historic England and Rugby MP Mark Pawsey – as well as over 100 residents and park users.
The park’s owners Heart of England Co-Op announced the plans last year after the council’s 30-year lease on the land expired.
Save Oakfield member Peter Crawford said: “We have seen the objections lodged and many cover the Co-op’s failure to meet even the most basic planning requirement in terms of alternative green space provision.
“As residents we’re pleased to see the full opposition of MP Mark Pawsey, as well as our highly supportive local councillors submitted to paper. This is further backed up with objections from the vast majority of local authority departments required to endorse these plans.”
Also among the objections was St Matthews Bloxam C of E School, who addressed the Co-op’s claim that the loss of the park would have only a minor impact on local residents and could be offset by using alternative sites including the school’s field.
A spokesperson said: “The school field is not ‘publicly accessible green space’. It is for the use of our pupils during school opening times.”
Save Oakfield spokesperson Richard Joy added: “The Co-op’s planning application is full of inaccuracies and planning lapses. They really need to go back to the drawing board with this and research the subject properly.
“We are extremely pleased to see such formal and clearly articulated objections from so many of the institutions who will be pivotal in getting this unwanted and hostile development stopped.”
