Defending Green Space

Despite the river running through the town and the greenery along its banks, and the public gardens at Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding has long been short of publicly accessible green space. That is why when it appears that any of the green space that there is in the town is under threat from development, we have more than once intervened in order to protect that space. Here we set out those interventions. Of course it has not only been ourselves, others such as local residents an local councilors, perhaps encouraged by their electors.

The Halley Stewart Playing Field

Given that the field was purchased with the support of the Sir Halley Stewart, and was given to the people of Spalding “to be used in perpetuity as a playing field … for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Town of Spalding” you would be forgiven for thinking that it would be actually available for all inhabitants of the town, but no, in 2012, concerns were being expressed that this was not necessarily the case, with some feeling that it was being treated solely as a football ground with Spalding United having exclusive use of it.

These concerns, together with the fear that its central location might one day make it a too tempting target for development, the Society and the Spalding Community Campaign independently put these concerns to Fields In Trust, the charity that protects parks, playing fields, play grounds and green spaces.

In response, their Deputy Chief Executive drew the Council’s attention to an almost identical case in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, where the football club was required to vacate the playing field in question and the Council concerned to return it to public use. The Charity Commission’s ruling was clear:-

“A trustee’s first loyalty is to the charity“

Accordingly, Fields In Trust advised South Holland District Council on 30 November 2012 “to seek guidance from the Commission to clarify the position in regard to the possibility of a breach of trust“.

After obtaining legal advice that had indicated that as the Council was the trustee of The Halley Stewart Playing Field Trust, decisions about the playing field should be taken by all members of the Council collectively. A Special Meeting of the full Council was held on 19 June 2013 at which it was confirmed that the Charity Commission had asked for more detailed information about the playing field being available for the benefit of the inhabitants of Spalding as required by the terms of the Trust. After obtaining legal advice a further meeting of the Council was held on 11 December 2013. At that meeting a summary of the advice provided was given and it was agreed that the booking form for the field would be amended, to make it clear that individuals and other small organisations were able to book the field.

The booking form was duly amended enabling individuals and organisations to book the field.

Today, the playing field is the subject of a long term lease by Spalding United who do make the field available for hire.

The Halley Stewart Playing Field Trust

Following a Freedom of Information request by Spalding United in 2021, a copy of the original Trust was made available by the Charity Commission, and a copy of the deed appears below.

Chiltern Drive Playing Field

In 2011, South Holland District Council submitted a planning application to extend the Cemetery, taking up two thirds of the adjacent Chiltern Drive Playing Field. The application provoked an outcry from the local community, including a 33-name petition. Not only had the field been providing local youngsters with a safe football and kick-about space for at least 16 years, but other uses mentioned on the petition include rugby, play, park, park with grandchildren, and jogging. In other words, it’s the sort of green open-air informal leisure space that all urban communities need. After a long period during which Sport England lodged a strong objection, pointing out that no provision was being made to replace the space lost, we set out the case as to why the proposal should not go ahead in our February 2015 Newsletter.

We pointed out that Spalding had barely half the green playing space it ought to have for a town of its size.

We flagged up that there was a covenant on the field, restricting its use “for any other purpose than amenity land playing field park or other amenity use” – signed up to by the Council when it bought the land in 1982
We pointed out that it flouted South Holland’s own planning policies which stated that people, “particularly children and the elderly, [should] have access to open space close to where they live”. Development must “not cause material harm to residential amenity” and “the quality of life for residents [remain] unimpaired“
We highlighted that Sport England had objected strongly to the loss of playing field space, especially as no replacement playing area was offered.

We also made the case that given that Spalding was set to grow with the development of Holland Park, that it would be better to find a site for a new cemetery that would be required at some point in the near future.

The outcome was that the Council’s planning committee overwhelmingly refused the planning application with the report stating that:-

“… the proposal would lead to the unacceptable loss of recreational space … given the overall deficit of public recreational space within Spalding and the lack of provision for acceptable alternative open space of similar value to residents within a reasonable alternative location.” And went on to list the local and national planning policies the application would have contravened. The members of the Planning Committee, considered the issue to be “fundamental”.

In 2025, there were rumours that the Council were once again considering extending the cemetery onto Chiltern Drive Playing Field. Local residents once again rallied round and made their objections known, even receiving the attention of the BBC. To date no more has been heard, but we stand ready to challenge any attempt to reduce the playing field.

Severn Road Playing Field

In July 2015 the District Council’s cabinet approved the a proposal “to appropriate [the two pieces of] existing Council owned land from the Housing Revenue Account to the General Fund.” with the recommendation “That … delegated authority be granted to the Executive Director (Commercialisation) to proceed with subsequent disposals of such land to the Council’s housing company.” Given the facts that we had highlighted in our objection to the loss of part of the Chiltern Drive Playing Field we wrote to the council to object to this recommendation.

The Council ignored us and declared the Council’s intention to dispose of the Severn Road field to Welland Homes Ltd. (the Council’s own housing company) “to enable the delivery of new housing”. We objected again.

In 2016 Welland Homes Ltd lodged a planning application to build 24 houses on the site near to Coronation Channel. This provoked another public outcry and a further intervention by Sport England

Regardless of what the Planning Committee had said about the Chiltern Drive Playing Field proposal, they approved the application even though the amount of accessible Green Space in Spalding was still less than what it should have been. Things went quiet for a few years, until suddenly in the Autumn of October 2019 the plans were shelved over concerns about the cost of additional flood protection measures.

The Society’s position is that we support the building of much needed housing for local residents, but not at the expense of reducing further an already inadequate provision of public green space. New development should be in the right place, not the wrong place.