Residents react angrily to plans for revamp of Preston's Ashton Park

Lancashire Post

A campaign group has been launched to oppose plans to build a new sports hub, 3G football pitch and car park on Ashton Park in Preston.  Locals are not impressed and say there are other things that could be done to improve the facility, wthout losing so much green space.  They spoke to local democracy reporter Paul Faulkner about their concerns.  To read the council's response, please follow this link - https://www.lep.co.uk/news/people/dont-do-this-residents-call-for-rethink-over-major-changes-to-prestons-ashton-park-4240106

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:27 Janine, Sue, can I just ask you what your thoughts were when you first heard of

00:31 the plans for Ashton Park?

00:33 I was horrified to think that we were going to get a plastic pitch and a massive car park

00:39 put on top of a perfectly good grass field with big floodlights right

00:42 surrounded by people's homes and the associated traffic that's going to be

00:48 brought in with it. I've no objection to football but we don't need plastic, we

00:52 don't need tall floodlights, it's just the wrong place. We're happy with grass

00:58 pitches but we don't want a plastic pitch because it's not good for the

01:01 environment, it's going to destroy our wildlife, of which we have lots.

01:04 But in winter or even in summer conditions like this the grass pitches are going to be usable are they?

01:09 I'm not sure that the plastic one will be usable if it's raining so much.

01:13 And Sue, you've got concerns about biodiversity I believe?

01:16 I do have concerns about biodiversity, especially in these times of

01:20 catastrophic climate breakdown. Every single carbon capturing, oxygen producing

01:26 organism is vital for all of us and it's not just here at Ashton where people are

01:33 losing the green spaces, it's all over the country which makes it even more

01:37 important that we preserve these areas of biodiversity. I mean you just look

01:43 around and imagine how many birds, insects, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates

01:52 are actually living here. This is a lie doing this.

01:56 So James, your house overlooks Ashton Park doesn't it? You've got a real stake in its future.

02:01 Yes, it's just a stone's throw away and I've lived here since 1972 so I've been

02:06 here nearly 52 years with my wife, my late wife who died recently and my

02:11 family. I brought all my children up here like many other people on this park.

02:16 We brought them up in safety. It's a lovely place to live. It's a beautiful park to live on.

02:21 The plans really are ill-conceived. It's going to change the park

02:27 entirely. The topography of the park is going to have to change

02:32 considerably for the council to accommodate the plans. There's a dome on

02:36 the park. It rises to about 11 feet in the middle. That's behind us here?

02:42 It's behind us now, yes, and it's quite considerable. The plans are to build a

02:46 bund in front of the houses on the western edge. How will your view of

02:50 the park change from where you live? Well we won't be able to see much of it

02:53 because of the bund in front of our windows and our gardens. What we will be

02:57 able to see however are the eight floodlight pilings and the five-meter eye

03:03 fencing. We'll also be able to hear the shouting and the bawling on football

03:07 matches, not just in the football season, but 365 days a year up until 10 or 11

03:14 o'clock at night. They assure us that it's only going to go on till 9 o'clock

03:17 but obviously the lights will be on for a lot longer than that and the cars on

03:21 the new car park, which will be at the side of the 3G peak, will be shining in

03:26 all our windows for time of the morning. Do you agree that something needs to be done with the park?

03:32 I do. I do agree that something needs to be done with the park. It needs new play

03:37 areas for children because these ones are inadequate that we have now. It

03:41 needs the basketball court refurbishing for the kids that they care so

03:47 much about, but they've let rot for years and years, the

03:51 basketball court. They've recently just done up one of the tennis courts and now

03:57 we've got to pay four pounds. Our children have to pay four pounds to go on

04:01 the tennis courts and now they want to build a sports hub on our park and

04:09 totally change the usage of it because it stops being a park and it starts

04:14 being a vanity sports centre for Preston City Council and that's all it is.

04:23 Anne, Stephanie, I believe you both live within a stone's throw of Ashton Park.

04:30 What do you make of the plans for it? I'm not very happy at all really. It was all

04:34 a complete surprise to us. We've not been consulted. You've been consulted

04:41 now though, haven't you? The council's launched a consultation through until the end of August?

04:44 Yes, they have. There is limited information coming back with regards to

04:49 our questions when we've tried to give our suggestions. It's a case of

04:56 they want us to complete questionnaires at the moment, but the questionnaires are

04:59 quite biased in my opinion. The questionnaire is all based around sports

05:04 and what do you book and why do you book it and it's not really a questionnaire

05:09 for a park. It's more for a football club or a sports centre. Isn't sport though a

05:15 key feature of a park like this or shouldn't it be? Yes and we do have sport

05:19 on here. We have football pitches at the seasonal time and just all grass, natural

05:29 grass. We've got tennis courts and basketball courts. We're in quite close proximity to

05:34 one of the children's play areas here, aren't we? Yes, we are and this is one of my big

05:39 worries is that the children's play area is there and on this path here it's a shame

05:43 it's a nasty day because normally we've got kids whizzing up and down and the

05:47 parents are sat having a lovely chat, but now where we're stood is going to be a

05:51 car park. So the children's play area is within yards of the car park. It's just

05:56 madness. It's an accident waiting to happen. It is, basically. They used to go

06:01 playing on there and then they'd start running and playing on the park.

06:05 They're not going to be able to now. They're going to be cut off from the park.

06:09 We're going to get a big football hub there with changing rooms and offices

06:13 and a cafe, but then we've got the old pavilion just there. Why are they not

06:17 using that footprint instead of another load of grass being used up? Yes. It is a

06:23 very old pavilion though, that building, isn't it? It needs to come down.

06:27 But why not put the new hub on that footprint and save a little bit more

06:31 grass? What would be your message to Preston City Council, anyone listening? I

06:35 think they should talk to us. Listen. Sit down. Let's have a rational

06:41 discussion about this. We want to have a debate. We want to have a say. What

06:46 happens? Where things go? We've got some really good ideas. We've tried to

06:51 express them, haven't we? More sport, not just football. We could have a skate park. We

06:56 could have much better facilities for children, better drainage, more seats for

07:02 the older people. Yes. There's a lot that could be done to this park that would

07:07 benefit the whole community, not just the minority really.

07:12 [Music]

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