Protect Seaford's remaining green spaces from development with Deeds of Dedication

Public green spaces are important community assets

These public recreational spaces provide outdoor sports grounds for local people and those further afield. These are places for the community to meet, walk and spend time outside in nature. They include playing fields for sport and recreation, childrens’ outdoor play areas, a sheltered garden, boules pitch, community orchards and meadows. These green spaces are a vital asset for our physical and mental health in otherwise built-up neighbourhoods. 

 

Seaford seriously lacks public green spaces 

After decades of development, there are only four pockets of publicly accessible sports and recreation space left in Seaford. For a town with a population of over 23,000, this is a worrying deficit. The Covid-19 pandemic showed us how much we need our neighbourhood green spaces where young and old can feel uplifted by the wildflower meadows and beauty of nature, walk their dogs, play football, boules, or simply hang out with friends and decompress - for free. 

Meanwhile, the town continues to grow in size, with the threat of building developments hanging over these precious community spaces. Recent development on local playing fields at Newlands have failed to make up for the loss of outdoor recreational space. 

Our parks and open spaces need legal protection
 
Fields in Trust provide a simple way to shield these vital green spaces from development by creating a legally binding Deed of Dedication. This protects green spaces from being built on, future-proofing Seaford's last remaining spaces for us, and future generations, to enjoy. In a climate crisis, with biodiversity threatened more than ever, what could be more important than protecting these irreplaceable green spaces?

The current Government has committed to accelerating house building, together with weakening local planning rules and creating larger, more distant Unitary authorities. With plans for local government to be reorganised, there is no guarantee that any commitment to keep these spaces for recreational use will be honoured by future local governments. As a result, local people could have less of a say about how they are managed and protected. Precious green spaces like Walmer Road and the Downs Leisure Centre recreation grounds are vulnerable to asset-stripping by cash-strapped councils to dispose of and sell to developers.
 

Remember plans for the Medical Hub?
 
Cast your mind back to 2018. The previous Council administration tried to build a medical hub and Tesco store on the recreation ground at the Downs Leisure Centre at a time when Seaford's Neighbourhood Plan specifically ruled out development on existing recreation grounds. (LDC has since offered a viable site in town for developing an improved medical centre.)
 
Council officers have said that existing planning regulations are robust enough to protect both sites from development. In Seaford's Neighbourhood Plan outdoor playing space is protected. But this can be overruled if there is insufficient land for local housing or other development. There simply is no guarantee that national or local planning rules will be enough to protect our green spaces - but a Deed of Dedication would protect them forever.