MP to chair protest meeting over council 'land grabs'

12.00.00am GMT Tue 28th Jan 2003

MP Vincent Cable urged local residents to take action to find out how the council's proposed UDP changes affect their area before February 14 since "they may find that the council has slipped through irrevocable changes to local land use without their having an opportunity to protest".

Vincent Cable said he was concerned about three sites in particular:

(a) Heathfield Recreation Ground. A protest meeting will be held on Tuesday 28th at Heathfield Junior School, chaired by Vincent Cable and attended by local councillors, over the proposed re-designation of Metropolitan Open Land for building a new school and playing fields (to which residents will have restricted access).

Vincent Cable said: "this is the only patch of grass in the area for local kids to ply football and other games and it is widely used by other residents."

"Under the council's proposals some of it will disappear under concrete and the rest will have only restricted access. The aim seems to be to sell off land at Whitton School for a tidy profit by relocating it onto public land. The residents are quite angry and I support them".

(b) Mereway Allotments and Kneller Gardens. Here local allotments will be built on for housing or a secondary school that will take the parkland in Kneller Gardens as playing fields.

Vincent Cable said: "few people yet seem to have woken up to the fact that this proposal would have major impacts on the quality of life in the Meadway and Mereway areas."

"Parking and mobility issues are already serious on the narrow roads, without 700 to 800 school kids passing through twice a day, many by car, on top of a new primary school already under construction."

"Added to that, local families will lose access to the park for much of the year".

(c) Craneford Way Fields. Here the council proposes to build houses on two parts of the site (the Marsh Farm allotments and the rifle club) and to remove from Metropolitan Open Land status the two playing fields (one owned by the council, the other by the tertiary college) which would open the way to a sell-off and more housing.

Vincent Cable said: "these fields are the only open space accessible to the public in this highly populated area of Twickenham."

"Residents will be furious at the way a major decision is being pushed through affecting their area with no consultation by their local Conservative councillors and with maximum speed",

Vincent Cable said he had written to the Chair of the Planning Committee, Councillor Lamb, to protest at the perfunctory way in which important decisions are being deal with, by-passing the public."