100 signatures reached
To: Countryside Access Team, Hampshire County Council, Castle Avenue, Winchester, SO23 8UL.
Support the Village green application for Farnborough community green space, pond & skate park.
We, the under signed, urge the Hampshire Countryside Access Team to to award village green status to Farnborough's community area.
This area provides many benefits in terms of health and recreation for the local community and by awarding village green status, we will be able to offer it extra protection from future potential redevelopments on that site.
This area provides many benefits in terms of health and recreation for the local community and by awarding village green status, we will be able to offer it extra protection from future potential redevelopments on that site.
Why is this important?
1. The skate park: This area is popular with teenagers and young adults within our area. It is a place they meet to hang out and during school holidays, you often see the place filled. This area is a safe place for them to engage in recreational sport, indeed the town centre has many CCTV cameras and there are often younger children there as well as young adults.
Recently there was a locally organized, community event known as 'The Jam with No Name' held at the skate park. This event was organized by people who utilize the park and was inclusive to all ages. It was well attended and all agreed it was a wonderful start to what they hope are many more events.
Rushmoor themselves state in their own Sustainable Community Strategy (2010-2026) that they wish to create a Rushmoor “which has great places to go and lots to do.” and the National policy indeed encourages council to meet different needs within their communities “Take account of and support local strategies to improve health, social and cultural well being for all, and deliver sufficient community and cultural facilities and services to meet local needs.”.
2. The green space: A lovely area with many different trees and lots of grass to sit on. It provides a lot of shade in the Summer and such spaces, the National planning policy states for a green space designation to be used, it must be shown that “…the green area is demonstrably special to a local community and holds a particular local significance, for example because of its beauty, historic significance, recreational value…”
The abundance of people who use this on a daily basis clearly demonstrates that this green space is of significance to many in the community and indeed Rushmoor acknowledges in their Core Strategy that “The Rushmoor Strategic Partnership recognizes the importance of open space to healthy living...”
3. The Pond area: Whilst small, this is a naturally diverse area with lots of insects and birds often visiting there to feed. National policy does seek to encourage such areas and “promote mixed use developments, and encourage multiple benefits from the use of land in urban and rural areas, recognizing that some open land can perform many functions (such as for wildlife, recreation…” and maintaining this pond would further biodiversity and not affect a current, established ecosystem within a region which Rushmoor states as declining “in biodiversity (variation of life at all levels)”.
The wildlife known to inhabit the pond are:
Fish,
Ramshorn snails,
Horse leeches, Dragon and damsel fly larvae,
Resident mallards.
This year, foraging grey wagtails have been spotted that seem to be nesting somewhere in the vicinity because they have been seen carrying food away.
4: Health Reasons: The promotion of good health is encouraged on both a council and national level, health within our region is a ‘challenge’ identified by with the Rushmoor Community strategy: “Levels of health, due to lifestyle choices, are below that of the regional average.” this is again acknowledged in the Rushmoor Health Improvement Plan (2012-2013) stating that “The National Child Measurement Programme for Hampshire shows obesity prevalence in Rushmoor children (Year R and Year 6) to be higher than the Hampshire average, and third highest of the 11 local authorities across Hampshire. In 2007/08 11.8% of children in Year R and 18.1% in Year 6 were obese.”, With this in mind, keeping and maintaining both the green space and skate park as a village green would “take account of and support local strategies to improve health, social and cultural wellbeing for all.”
Finally, from the words of Rushmoor themselves:
“Green infrastructure is a network of green spaces which offers a number of functions and benefits. These include the enhancement of biodiversity, use for recreation and therefore promoting health benefits, opportunities for cycling and walking, noise absorption, landscape character, amenity, and mitigation for climate change including through urban cooling and carbon absorption. The provision of a good green infrastructure network therefore has social, ecological and environmental benefits to the residents of the Borough."
If you wish to get more involved, please contact us in one of the following ways:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThorTrees
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rushmoor_Green
Or you can email us at [email protected]
We would be especially interested in any memories or photos of the green from over 20 years ago to help support our application.
To share this petition please use this short url:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/Farnboroughgreenspace
Recently there was a locally organized, community event known as 'The Jam with No Name' held at the skate park. This event was organized by people who utilize the park and was inclusive to all ages. It was well attended and all agreed it was a wonderful start to what they hope are many more events.
Rushmoor themselves state in their own Sustainable Community Strategy (2010-2026) that they wish to create a Rushmoor “which has great places to go and lots to do.” and the National policy indeed encourages council to meet different needs within their communities “Take account of and support local strategies to improve health, social and cultural well being for all, and deliver sufficient community and cultural facilities and services to meet local needs.”.
2. The green space: A lovely area with many different trees and lots of grass to sit on. It provides a lot of shade in the Summer and such spaces, the National planning policy states for a green space designation to be used, it must be shown that “…the green area is demonstrably special to a local community and holds a particular local significance, for example because of its beauty, historic significance, recreational value…”
The abundance of people who use this on a daily basis clearly demonstrates that this green space is of significance to many in the community and indeed Rushmoor acknowledges in their Core Strategy that “The Rushmoor Strategic Partnership recognizes the importance of open space to healthy living...”
3. The Pond area: Whilst small, this is a naturally diverse area with lots of insects and birds often visiting there to feed. National policy does seek to encourage such areas and “promote mixed use developments, and encourage multiple benefits from the use of land in urban and rural areas, recognizing that some open land can perform many functions (such as for wildlife, recreation…” and maintaining this pond would further biodiversity and not affect a current, established ecosystem within a region which Rushmoor states as declining “in biodiversity (variation of life at all levels)”.
The wildlife known to inhabit the pond are:
Fish,
Ramshorn snails,
Horse leeches, Dragon and damsel fly larvae,
Resident mallards.
This year, foraging grey wagtails have been spotted that seem to be nesting somewhere in the vicinity because they have been seen carrying food away.
4: Health Reasons: The promotion of good health is encouraged on both a council and national level, health within our region is a ‘challenge’ identified by with the Rushmoor Community strategy: “Levels of health, due to lifestyle choices, are below that of the regional average.” this is again acknowledged in the Rushmoor Health Improvement Plan (2012-2013) stating that “The National Child Measurement Programme for Hampshire shows obesity prevalence in Rushmoor children (Year R and Year 6) to be higher than the Hampshire average, and third highest of the 11 local authorities across Hampshire. In 2007/08 11.8% of children in Year R and 18.1% in Year 6 were obese.”, With this in mind, keeping and maintaining both the green space and skate park as a village green would “take account of and support local strategies to improve health, social and cultural wellbeing for all.”
Finally, from the words of Rushmoor themselves:
“Green infrastructure is a network of green spaces which offers a number of functions and benefits. These include the enhancement of biodiversity, use for recreation and therefore promoting health benefits, opportunities for cycling and walking, noise absorption, landscape character, amenity, and mitigation for climate change including through urban cooling and carbon absorption. The provision of a good green infrastructure network therefore has social, ecological and environmental benefits to the residents of the Borough."
If you wish to get more involved, please contact us in one of the following ways:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThorTrees
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rushmoor_Green
Or you can email us at [email protected]
We would be especially interested in any memories or photos of the green from over 20 years ago to help support our application.
To share this petition please use this short url:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/Farnboroughgreenspace
