Turnpike FIT – another 2 views from ChatBox

Turnpike FIT – another 2 thoughtful views from ChatBox

Martin Measures

Well said Peter Morgan (although we have never forgiven you for your anti French PC rants- rainbow warrior. ) the only way of saving the asset in perpetuity is FIT. We have a knee jerk reaction from people who have not looked at the facts and have a misconceived idea that we are sitting on the Audlem jewels ! Also a failure to realise that with future LG reform the PC could be wiped out and assets end up with Cheshire East or equivalent.

Greg Ashton

As I Understand it the status quo is that we the residents are paying for the Turnpike Field facility and ownership resides with the Parish Council who can ultimately dictate its use. If a future council proposes any use with which we disagree we can lobby them directly and if necessary remove them through the ballot box.

It may be difficult today to envisage changes of use we might want to support in the future, but one example highlighted by Jean in an earlier post might be if we wanted to temporarily use a larger area of the field than is specified in the FIT deed for car parking to support a village event. If we agree to a deed of protection with FIT then we cannot make any changes without their consent. The section on ''Flexible Protection'' below is pasted from the FIT website and gives an insight into what might be involved in obtaining that consent.

To me the benefits of adding an extra layer of unelected governance are far from obvious!

Flexible protection
We do recognise that circumstances can change, however, and for this reason the Deed does have a certain level of flexibility built into it. In general, changes to the space which are ancillary to its use – i.e. supporting the primary activities taking place – are usually fine and do not require our consent. Anything which is not ancillary to a space's use, such as buildings, commercial leases and changes of use, can be permissible but generally require our consent. A landowner can seek this consent by making an application through our Field Change Request procedure, with any such applications being considered by our experienced Planning and Policy Committee of Trustees.

In rare cases a landowner may wish to remove a piece of land from protection. This can be possible, through a Field Change Request application, but in general we will require a new space, which is of equal or better quality than the existing protected space and which serves the same community, to be protected in return.