Turnpike Field

Purchase of Turnpike Field 2018

There has recently been a number of ChatBox entries in connection with the reason for the purchase of Turnpike Field. I can provide some relevant information which should make clear the reason that Audlem Parish Council submitted a (successful) bid for Turnpike Field.

I was Vice-Chair of the Parish Council at the time of purchase. Heather Jones, the then Chair, and I made presentations to residents in April 2018 to seek their views about submitting a bid for the field in order to preserve the green space in the centre of the village.

We also put forward suggestions as to how the green space could be put to community use. One of these, subject to planning permission, was to create a 'green' car park in order to help alleviate the problem of parking in the village centre. This was very strongly supported. Accordingly, when the bid was successful, this became a Parish Council policy.

Various other suggestions were put forward, including the installation of picnic benches and creating a nature conservation and wildlife area. However, many people supported just leaving it as an area of community green space.

In September 2018, we made a further presentation explaining why the Parish Council had purchased the field, the benefits and downsides, the cost and the next steps. During the presentation this statement was made on one of the slides:

"The feedback from the two meetings in April was to ensure that the Parish Council put in a successful bid in order to ensure that the field was not bought by a developer and this important green space was lost forever."

Hopefully, this will clarify the primary reason for the purchase of Turnpike Field by Audlem Parish Council.