Village row over council’s £71.5k parkland purchase
Villagers are to meet tonight (Wednesday, July 17) to discuss a growing row over their parish council spending £71,500 on the purchase of a fenland field for use as parkland by residents.
Heckington Parish Council has been in confidential negotiations since July last year and took ownership of the six-acre grass field off Star Fen Road on April 24 but some residents and councillors have taken issue with the decision to spend the money, calling a special council meeting at the village hall.
According to the agenda, the land was bought “despite a minority of councillors voicing concerns, offering knowledge and opposition to the purchase”.
As Councillors Dawn Bell and Nigel Stanley feel due diligence was not actioned and residents were not adequately consulted, they wish to take a vote on whether the purchase is supported and to decide what action to take if the parish council is deemed to have failed to follow its own rules.
Chairman Coun Jan Palmer told The Standard that Heckington has wanted some green space for people to enjoy for years. The site is 1.8 miles out of the village, off a narrow lane, but there is already a dog walking paddock and fishing lakes nearby.
Coun Palmer said: “Although parcels of land have come up in that time, they have been at building land prices which of course have been cost prohibitive to the parish.”
She said when the owner announced he wished to retire and sell the piece of land last year, it was unanimously decided at council they should try to obtain it for the parish. The council was kept informed of the process, for approval and the site was paid for from "land reserves”.
They have been taking advice from the creators of the successful woodland parks around Boston, including Jenny’s Wood.
“Once this is completed the idea is to have a public meeting to show the initial ideas, and to progress from there, hopefully with interested people becoming involved in the development,” said Coun Palmer.
Coun Richard Higgs added at the council’s annual meeting in May that the land had been bought under market value and was an asset with its use to be agreed by public referendum. “If the public do not want it, an option would be to rent the land out.”