Chatbox

What happened to the promise of opening the turnpike field as a temporary car park during the week of roadworks?

The field is presently closed and I know of one village business suffering because of this closure.

Well done Rosemary and Trevor for speaking it in support of the people in the village that make or try to make things happen. When I first moved into the village over three years ago I expressed my thanks to people like Ralf and the Lord Combermere (and many others) for what they do for our community. I said that I always believe that there are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen and people who just ask what's happened. I now think I need to add 'and people who just winge about what's happened/ not happened. Oh and for clarity I'm currently in the watching category but not a wingeer (sorry about the spelling!) audlem is a great village wth many pro active people, thank you for what you do and for what it's worth the field is big enough for a car park and a wildlife / community are.

Following on from Celia Bloors recommendation re The Festival Hall Market Drayton. I can highly recommend this venue too. The staff are mainly volunteers and want to be there, very attentive, a wonderful cafe and extremely helpful. A lovely theatre showing films and live acts too. Definitely worth a visit. Up until recently I used to take one of my clients from Walgherton, she absolutely loved it there.

Sorry I forgot Festival Drayton which as well as films has live links to London Theatres and invites personalities, pick up a programme at the centre across the road from Argos/Wilcos in Market Drayton, nice friendly cafe too.

And I wonder why there's a shortage of PC members, all they did was open the field for emergency parking and it's seems to have invited a barrage of vitriolic abuse when most the current members weren't even on the council when these decisions were made

My contact number is ......07725359088

I have a huge regard for Bob McClintocks views. Sadly having run sheep on Turnpike field for many years up to 2014 ,the sad fact is that they spent about 70% of the time grazing the area designated to be the green car park. The lower part is wet in the winter and the grass is a coarse species not very palatable for sheep. In addition the top area is better sheltered in inclement weather.~
Chris

Help needed....I have an LG Oled Tv....a Sony sound bar (with subwoofer!!)....BT Box. I will gladly pay £20 to anybody who would connect the three together to make them work properly.
I live in Hankelow. Thank you.

Well said Elisabeth. Totally agree with your message.
Thank you Audlem Medical Practice for all that you do.

I voted to purchase Turnpike Field primarily to stop further major development. In theory, some sort of green car park sounds a good idea, but do I think it will stop the parking problems in the Village? No, it will not. Basically, most folk are too lazy to walk that far, and if they have the opportunity to park nearer, they will, wouldn't most people? If a car park is what it must become, then please ensure some sort of height restriction barrier is installed, as soon as possible, as it's winter parking season for 'travellers', and as soon as they get wind of an open, unrestricted access, I am sure they will be delighted to park in it.

MINUTES OF MEETING OF AUDLEM PARISH COUNCIL (APC) 11 October 2021 – 128/21 Subcommittees – Turnpike Field Working Group
Cllr J McGregor reported that more than 20 organisations had been contacted regarding the building of a car park. Three organisations are scheduled to visit week commencing October 18 to provide quotes. A fourth quote is also expected.

Can you please provide a brief summary of the work 'Requested For Quote' by APC that the 4 organisations contacted by APC are quoting to.

Havinig walked the Field a few times , I can't see what all the fuss is about . Apart from a couple of smelly ponds it doesn't see any different since it was owned by farmer Eric. It just seems to be a dog walkers paradise with a few wild flowers here and there. May I suggest the following action. Bottom end rent it out for sheep grazing etc . Top end green car park and dog walking facility. Of course these areas would have to be adequately secured. Use any income towards improving the playing field facility for the benefit of the younger people in our community

This is my understanding of the numerous survey's that were held from early 2018:

In summary is that essentially there were 3 different occasions when people
'voted':

1. The open meetings early in 2018 before the decision to bid for the field was made. As we know, the primary acquisition was for preservation of the green space, but obviously the possibility of a car park was very positive influencer – particularly by the business people who attended and hence a majority 'Yes' vote was achieved – I don't have access to the Parish Council data (if there is any) on how many people actually attended these, but it wasn't a massive number. It was also very clear at the time how much the acquisition cost was going to be and still the majority voted "Yes"
2. The open meeting in Feb 28th 2019 where people put sticky dots on their choices – again a relatively low number of people. The vote of 40% of the 160 votes cast was for the 'Green Car Park/Hedging/fencing/Improved access with height security barrier/Pedestrian gate with disabled access'
3. The significantly larger, online vote done in March 2019 where 17.5% of the 1338 votes cast were made for the car park.

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I have read and reread the comments about Turnpike Field. Whilst I accept that some people might have wanted the Parish Council to buy the field to prevent it being developed, I have two observations on that. Firstly, to spend in excess of £200,000 of money contributed by Council Tax payers for this purpose would be a flagrant misuse of public money (and it might be illegal, as in restraint of trade), and secondly, nowhere does such an idea feature on the list of preferred uses of the field as shown on the list that resulted from the public meeting on 29/02/19 – see https://tfra.audlem.org/doc/D370483.pdf . This shows that 40% of respondents wanted there to be a green car park, almost 30% wanted wildflower and nature conservation areas, and over 14% wanted tree planting and seats. Given the size and topography of the field, all of these can exist harmoniously within it.

The use of the field must be guided by the wishes of the electorate as expressed in the list referred to, and the public meetings. The Parish Councillors represent us, and having sought our views, they must accept them, and not decide on other priorities or uses.

Please, get on with the car park as a priority, in advance of other uses and spending at Turnpike Field. Even allowing for some delay from Covid, too much time has already passed.

A huge shout out to Audlem Medical Practice today for the sterling effort from all concerned to get so many people vaccinated today...well done folks

Used the green car park on tollgate field today for the first time.
Excellent additional facility for the village.
Access/egress a bit tight but other than that no hunting for parking spaces on road or adjacent estates.

There have been some references to the "Community Uses" survey that was conducted in March 2019, following the successful acquisition of the wonderful green space back in Aug 2018 – thus ensuring that it would no longer be at risk of development – who else remembers the massive development that was proposed back in the early 80's, by Barratts I think, which was fortunately refused by the planners.

The results of this poll, together with other information, has been available on the Turnpike Field website since April 2019 – its on the Home page so shouldn't be too difficult to find. It was this survey that formalised the priorities for developing the field.
Whilst it was no surprise that the Car Park received 17.5% of the votes, the highest number for an individual idea, 47% of the votes were for conservation related ideas.

For those who aren't aware of the website, its here:
https://tfra.audlem.org

You are all correct re the field , the council did want to protect the land from development . The village did vote on how it should be utilised ; number one on the list was to build a car park . However they were not given a full and Frank account of the costs of building one, which turned out to be far far more than anticipated . Hopefully before the council go ahead and open it to the public next week can they confirm have completed a full risk assessment .As the last thing the village can afford is to be sued should there be an accident . Especially with an ongoing police investigation re the Financial irregularities .

Adrian. I don't need you to 'straighten' my comments thank you. I said Turnpike was being treated as 'some sort of nature reserve' not an actual nature reserve. As much as I enjoy your updates I'm sure the majority of species can be found around our beautiful countryside particularly canalside. I fear the concentration of effort on making it a conservation area detracts from what the village and it's businesses really need and that is more parking

Hey, here is possibly a very simple inexpensive solution that may aid the village parking issues. Simply mark/spray paint some double yellow lines around the turnpike field, put up a NO PARKING SIGN ( but don't spend £3000 on it), leave the gate open, and wait for them to arrive, what could be simpler?

My views and support for the priorities for Turnpike Field would have been formed by what I read on Audlem online.
I have found this piece on Audlem online from 9th May 2018.
Perhaps the editors could include my link as part of my post :

https://www.audlem.org/news/green-lane-update.html

It says, from the Parish council, before the bid but after the consultation :"Councillors are very aware of the very strong support at public meetings and in Survey responses for attempting to buy the field purely to retain it as green space for community use; any additional parking would be a bonus but was a secondary consideration."

I would like to draw your attention to the PC Chairman's Report in their Newsletter Summer/Autumn 2019 available on the PC's website, which states "The main idea, subject to planning permission, is to provide a 'green' car park, using a mesh through which the grass will grow". The PC continue to defer decisions from one meeting to the next and no progress is made eg the Public Car Park is still being deferred after some eight years. Car Parking facilities should be a priority to sustain the village businesses who need support now more than ever. If we lose them the village dies.

Victory hall ,Woore. Tomorrow night 23rd. Rocket man is showing. Think they do it monthly

I seem to recall that at the time of the proposed field purchase the PC conducted a poll of the support for the various uses & that the car park scored highly in this.

I could of course be wrong but could James possibly re visit this document & share the results with us all as refresher please.