New Row over Buckingham Fields

11.52.39am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 30th Jan 2006

The row over Buckingham Playing Fields in Hampton has flared back into life after the Council has put up notices on the playing fields, long regarded as public open space, describing them as "private property". Last summer, the smaller of the two fields was enclosed by a large fence and reserved for Hampton Community College. Now, the larger field is being declared 'off limits' to residents too. Vincent Cable MP, who attacked the original fence as "gross and ugly" and campaigned for local residents, is now questioning the original decision and lottery grant after it has emerged that the school hardly ever used the enclosed field. He also warns that if the Government's new Education Bill goes through, the School will be able to claim the whole of Buckingham Fields as private land, protect by Trust Status.

He said: "This whole issue is a dreadful can of worms. It now appears that the Council may have obtained a lottery grant to fence the field on false pretences. While I had some sympathy with the argument that HCC should have access to decent playing fields, it now appears that the field is hardly ever used, while residents have lost regular access to it. And the much bigger field which is popular with local children, in particular, is being claimed for the exclusive use of the school. I know from the battle, a decade ago, over the Craneford Way fields in Twickenham, that once educational institutions opt out of local authority control the land goes with them and could be lost to the local community in perpetuity. That is why residents are right to take a stand in fighting the way the Council are dealing with the issue."