News

DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE WRITING SUCH NONSENSE

Dear Ed,

Re:- Council want sports hall, claim
 
Well its news to me, and if the author of this article had bothered to attend the Parish Council Meetings or asked to see the Council`s minutes which are public documents, they would have discovered that Swingfield PC has not even debated the subject.
 
The Sports Hall at Selsted School was in fact built as a Community Hall. Thus it was a condition of all the grants that were made available, that it was open to the public after school hours. In fact its use by the public is encouraged and regularly monitored.
 
So let`s now dispose of the issue of the sale of five acres of land for development where the present village hall is sited.
 
The land was given to the Parishes of Swingfield and Acrise`to be left forever open for the purposes of the recreation of the inhabitants of the Parishes of Swingfield and Acrise and the neighbouring population`. This is enshrined in the Swingfield Minnis Enclosure Award of 1844, administered by the Churchwardens until 1895, when it was taken over by the civil authorities of both parishes.
 
When the Commons Registration Act came along the entire area was registered at the time by the then Parish Council along with the village green, which means basically they must remain as permanent open spaces for the enjoyment of the public as long as they (the public) want it to remain so.  Since then the open area and the village hall has been administered by a registered charity whose members are currently appointed by the Parish Council of Swingfield and the Parish Meeting of Acrise for a rotating 4 year term. There are seven of them.
 
It is true the land can be disposed of, but o­nly with the consent of the electorate of both parishes, and secondly it is way outside any area currently allocated for development in new Local Plan.
 
So please whoever wrote this nonsense, the next time you feel the urge to commit to paper such information, go away and do basic homework first.  
 
Cllr.Colin Tearle
Chairman Swingfield Parish Council