'Friends of Sutton Park' - Friends Indeed!
New sign and noticeboard welcoming visitors to Sutton Park, St.Helens
As Sutton Beauty in human form rested his weary bones on the bench in Sutton Park near the ice-age boulder on Saturday morning, he saw two twin girls dressed in matching pink having a whale of a time playing in a sea of daffodils, while their parents studied the splendid new noticeboard that the Friends of Sutton Park support group have recently had installed.
To his right, to the park's northern corner, two lads were fully occupied climbing a tree. "Hope they don't fall ", Sutton Beauty thought, remembering that St.Helens Hospital was, fortuitously, only yards away! It was, however, a pleasant scene which summed up what green open space is all about.
If you recall, the local community fought off plans in January 2007 to convert part of the public park, which was created in 1903, into a temporary car park. (See this post and this post). As a result, with Ward Committee and council support, the Friends of Sutton Park were founded last July. A bulb planting day with the kids in Robins Lane school took place in October and a new fence is being erected. I expect that the group, which meets in the Red Lion, have more improvements in mind.
The next meeting of the group will be on April 1st (no fooling!) in the Red Lion at the corner of Robins Lane and New Street in Sutton, St.Helens at 7pm. All are welcome.
(Click an image for a larger view)
Sutton Park Saved!
Quite a volte-face as residents adjacent to the park had only received letters advising them of the planning application last Saturday. Just shows what you can do!
Save Sutton Park!
Residents in Marina Avenue are protesting against the proposals
I’ve been informed of an alarming planning application by St Helens Hospital to use part of Sutton Park as a temporary car park. In case you’re assuming that this will just be a small car park to accommodate a handful of vehicles for just a few weeks, you should think again. If the application is successful, car parking spaces will be created for a whopping 421 vehicles for a whole 18 months, occupying a total of 9,500 square metres of our beloved park!
As you may know St Helens & Knowsley (NHS) Trust are investing £85 million in new facilities at St Helens Hospital including 6 new theatres, 68 outpatient rooms and 140 new beds. This build will take 2 years to complete and as a consequence the Trust wants to annexe a large part of Sutton Park for car parking purposes during much of the construction period.
You can read the full planning application HERE but these are the salient bits:
2) The vehicular entrance will be adjacent to Philip Grove with electronic security barriers and a security shed manned 24 hours a day
3) A 2 metre high chain link fence will be constructed to partition off and secure the car park (the red dotted perimeter on the map )
4) Two trees each 5 metres high will be removed
5) The turf and top soil will be stripped and stockpiled on site for reuse. The car park will be surfaced with recycled aggregate, 300mm thick
6) No public right of way will, they say, be affected
7) After 18 months the car park will be removed and the top soil will be reinstated and seeded. The two trees that had been removed will be replaced by similar trees.
Public consulation on the planning application ends on 21st February 2007 and it is very, very simple to object online if like me you’re concerned about this.
Click Here and then click on the large Comment on Application button down the page. A pop up window will appear where you can register your objection.
Will youngsters still be able to play cricket in Sutton Park?
Within the planning application the applicant describes the site where it intends to build the car park as “open space within Sutton Park ”. On a web page on parks St Helens Council says:
There are so many reasons why this proposal should be rejected and many local residents are already up in arms over it. Click on the Comments link below if you wish to post your own thoughts on this.Open space or green space is essential to creating a positive sense of place and well being. It also provides a wide-ranging number of benefits including:
Promotion of healthy living through sport, leisure and recreational activities; Supporting biodiversity; Encouraging community involvement in the management and development of ‘their’ green space; Improving the image of an area.