Hands On Our Park website (unofficial) - our sources - Cabinet Meeting 20th March 2006

Back to 'Sources' | Marketing Strategy | Management Plan

On 20th March 2006 the Cabinet at BTW accepted a report on the Telford Town Park Strategic Framework. You can download the pdf from here (1.7Mb pdf).

Extracted (our comments in red):

Proposals include:

Retention and redesign of Northern Urban Park Zone to include quality play areas, youth facilities, garden areas, water features and visitor information areas. Fine.
Redesign and enhancement of Southwater Square and the arena to improve connectivity and to enable development of new interfaces between the Park and the developing Town Centre. Does this mean, no, the International Centre can't expand into the arena? Has anyone told them? BTW has supported their expansion plans - where else could they go?
The development of formal Gateway entrances. Not at the southern end, not on current plans, ie off a narrow track through a residential area.
Access improvements to pools and recreation areas within the park including safety, signage and physical improvements. Yes. What took them so long?
Enhancement of bridleways, cycle routes and pathway network. Of course - first someone needs to check the council knows where these are.
Inclusion of heritage and nature trails. Yes, if properly and sensitively done. S&B parish council are taking this in hand.
The opportunity of an 'In Park' sustainable light transport system to connect areas of interest within the park, to promote central and southern areas and to enable strategic linkages between the Town Centre, the Park and Ironbridge (Blists Hill). Just maybe - but NOT on Silkin Way and NOT if including a park and ride scheme involving large areas of the Park being given over to parking. We are not interested in wrecking the Park to boost tourism in Ironbridge.
The opportunity for enhanced community and pocket park areas in the Stirchley and Malinslee parts of the Park. What? Why? Vandal magnets more likely. Waste of money.
An enhanced southern Informal Events Ground. NO! This is the quietest part of the Park, teeming with wildlife. Fairs, carnivals etc are totally inappropriate. We will fight this.
An Education and Nature Research area within the Local Nature Reserve. Not within it - how can this be done without ruining it? Get Stirchley Grange back into operation as it was before.
Retention of a formal Sport and Leisure Zone within the Park. Retention? As is? More detail needed. This must not be presented to users of the Elms as a viable alternative while their patch is grabbed back.
The opportunity for a regeneration scheme in Paddock Mount / Langleyfields area, Randlay Car Park and a small scale frontage development opportunity along the Stirchley Road area of the Park. Definitely not. We have no problem with regenerating Dawley High Street but we are against selling this area off for development. No more houses or commercial premises are needed here - and if the money is supposed to regenerate Dawley how can it also pay for Park 'improvements'? And where is the ongoing revenue funding supposed to come from?
LINE IN THE SAND HERE. What a cunning plan - chop it out of the Park then say you aren't selling off any of the park. BTW needs to realise people are not that stupid, although given the patchy understanding of the report by some Cabinet members, it's a good thing we have our wits about us.

From 'Financial Issues':

However as an indication of finances, the recent Living Landmarks application included £11m capital request for the Park. This figure was based upon the Framework Document projects which met the Living Landmarks criteria. We want to know which projects met the criteria and what those criteria are.
Only the small scale projects outlined on the Baseline Map which didn't incur large capital costs could be achieved within existing budgets allocated to the Telford Town Park, for example basic pathways and woodland improvements, information improvements and fauna and flora surveys. These would still have to be undertaken over several years. Go ahead and do it. Why would these take several years?
It is therefore evident that increased capital and revenue budgets are needed to achieve the Telford Town Park Vision of creating a park of regional significance and a national example of Best Practice. Not evident at all to us. How much do we care about these National 'Awards'? This is TELFORD Town Park. Out of town visitors are welcome but NOT needed. National Awards may boost cv's but are not a priority for local people.
Opportunities to obtain this funding may be gained through external funding bids (e.g. Living Landmarks), capital gains from any Borough of Telford & Wrekin adjacent land* which is sold off for development and proceeds from Section 106 contributions.**

* for adjacent read 'recently and ruthlessly chopped out of the Park'

** These are contributions by developers in return for planning permissions granted elsewhere. To be watched with suspicion.

Boundary (Extracted):

Although the creation of a new boundary wasn't part of the framework, this review of the park does provide the opportunity to now consider a formal boundary for the Park. With this in mind it is recommended that the boundary as outlined in appendix 5 is approved.
We reproduce the maps here.
They are precisely as they appear in the original document, which is in the public domain. As explained more on our boundary page this represents a considerable reduction in the size of the Park. Note to Cabinet members who had not realised - the Arena, for one thing, is now excluded.
This proposal also contains an area highlighted towards the Southern part of the park which, although not currently within the management boundary of the park, could be included in the new park boundary, as its current use includes woodland, recreation and open space provision. Very cunning wording. It might not be within the management boundary - but it is firmly within the Town Park.
This would enable an extra 15 hectares / 37 acres to be brought within the Town Park boundary. Sorry, it has to be said - Liar, liar, pants on fire!