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Play area plan wins support
FAMILIES living on a new estate say they are in favour of a new play park despite protests from residents living at a nearby retirement village.
People living at Hartfields Retirement Village attended a Hartlepool Borough Council planning committee meeting to oppose plans to build the park near their housing complex, as reported in the Mail.
They told the committee they did not want the play facility as they feared it would attract anti-social behaviour and claimed they had not been made aware of the full plans before moving in.
But members of the Middle Warren Residents' Association have contacted the Mail to say they are all for the plans.
Paula Hargrave, 40, who lives in nearby Dewberry Close, on the Bishop Cuthbert estate, said: "We have been planning this park from the year dot with lots of input from the estate."
Paula, who is association secretary, said the park was in the planning before the Joseph Rowntree Trust, which owns Hartfields, approached the council to build the retirement village.
Paula, who is mum to 12-year-old Jodie Potter and Sophie Potter, 18, said: "We are a little bit shocked to get to this. The park has been long-awaited by many parents."
She added security and "all sorts of worries" including vandalism had been considered and there will be a car park and hedges between Hartfields and the play area.
Paula said: "It will be encircled by the estate and us residents will be looking over it.
"Every step of the way we have considered who might use it and how to deter people hanging around."
Paula, who manages petrol stations across Teesside and whose partner David Dixon manages petrol stations in Newcastle, added there were plans to install obstacles to prevent motorbikes going on the land.
Paula said David's sons Mitchell, 15, Curtis, 13, and Bradley, 11, could use the park when they visit.
She added children from Throston Primary School, some of whom live on the estate, had chosen the designer of the facility.
"The park is a culmination of everybody's ideas, including the bandstand, where we hope to have fairs, bands, festivals and open days," said Paula.
"It will be a real community centre-piece. The Tall Ships pub is not for children and there are no real play areas for them on the estate.
"Residents who do support this need to speak out or we might lose this park."
Council officers said proposals for the park were included in a masterplan for the estate back in 1997.
More than 100 people have signed a petition to object to the development.
Council planners received 22 letters of no objection and 41 letters of objection to the plans.
A site visit by planning committee members if scheduled for June 16, the day of the next planning meeting.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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