Refreshingly, given strength of recent feeling, many seemed to recognise the positive intention behind the “other side’s” views at a packed community meeting called by Friends of Riverside Park on October 28, to discuss the primary school’s proposal to take over park land and re-route a footpath.
Link: Daily Echo October 30: - Bitterne Park Primary School close to securing 25-year lease despite public's concerns

Two chairs: Community meeting chair Graham Linacre (left) clarifies a point with Bitterne Park Primary School chair of governors Howard Whitehead

The number turning out for a Tuesday evening community meeting reflected what many feel is the importance of an emotive issue that threatens to create real divisions.

Co-operation

But while the way forward sometimes seemed as treacherous as the often boggy ground at the bottom of the field in question, chair Graham Linacre, from Southampton Common and Parks Protection Society, steered proceedings towards the possibilities of co-operation – while trying to clarify points with Dimbleby-esque persistence.

Bitterne Park Primary School chair of governors Howard Whitehead said that the issue we all face is that we have nearly 700 children who can’t safely access the park during school hours, and that we need to do something about it.

He said he thought that it’s great there’s such an active local community, praised Friends of Riverside Park (FORP) for their work looking after the park, and said the community should be getting together to solve the problem.

“We shouldn’t be against each other. We should be working together,” he said.

FORP chair Doug Perry (left) said that he’d offered to meet the school “any time, any where, any when,” and that he would also want to work with the residents’ association, “because we’re all a part of the community”.

He said FORP agreed with the fencing off of the area, wanted children to be safe, and would like to see a new fence with gates and proper signage particularly prohibiting dogs, which he said he’d asked the council for “time and time again”.

“But after school has finished, it should be open to the general public,” he said.

Solving the conundrum

Conservative ward councillor Peter Baillie thought that the “very senior well respected people” in the room had enough brains to thrash the problem out and come up with a solution to “solve the conundrum” – and in so doing, give children a better deal.

“But that will involve some compromise on the current situation,” he said.

Chair Graham Linacre wound up proceedings – which hadn’t set out to arrive at firm conclusions – saying:

“My impression is that there is a willingness… …to begin to listen to some of these suggestions that have been put forward: some of them I thought were very promising – in particular, rather than the school having sole control [of access to the playing field] it should be some sort of independent, or joint, or partnership arrangement that looks after this land.

“I think everyone is supporting the idea that we need to do something to make it safer for both the children in the school, and the community at large, to use that land. It would need thought about how individual groups and families could get access to that land if they wanted to, without a long period of prior booking…. You could find solutions to these things, and I hope that that may be the way forward.”

He said he thought the next stage was for the different groups within the community to see if they can get together and come up with a formula that achieves both what the school wants, but which also allays some of the community fears about losing access to the land, and not being able to use the public path behind the school.

Links
Daily Echo October 30, 2014: - Bitterne Park Primary School close to securing 25-year lease despite public's concerns
2007 Article on bitternepark.info 'Schools consult over parks plan'
2014 Article outlining idea, including links to download Bitterne Park Primary School’s letter to residents and draft plan, and comments
2014 FORP calls public meeting over park plan