PEOPLE living near the abandoned rugby field off Bridge Lane, Appleton, face the worrying prospect of it remaining a weed-strewn eyesore until at least the year 2058.
Giant weeds – described by local councillors as “an impenetrable jungle” – are encroaching into their gardens and the former playing area itself is covered in dog faeces.
As a result, Warrington Rugby Club, which abandoned the ground some 14 years ago after a disastrous fire destroyed the club house, say they cannot resume using the ground for health and safety reasons.
Last year, the club, now based at Warrington Sports Club at Walton Lea, announced it was to resume using the Bridge Lane site for junior matches. But despite employing contractors to carry out a clean-up, the dog faeces problem persisted and the club had to drop its proposals.
The field is owned by Warrington Borough Council but the rugby club has a 99-year lease, ending in 2058, which it maintains despite not using the ground.
Several years ago, plans were put forward to build 55 houses on the site but these were never progressed.
Cllr Brian Axcell (pictured), chairman of Appleton Parish Council, said: “We would like to see the field brought back into use. It is an eyesore and a health hazard and certainly causes problems for local residents.
“But it seems no agreement can be reached between the rugby club and the borough council and, as a result, the field remains overgrown and an eyesore.”
The borough council says it is still holding talks with the club and, although it has no responsibility to do so, has cut back vegetation, including Japanese Knotweed, to maintain a reasonable environment for local people. The rugby club says it would welcome talks to progress matters, but any solution has to make financial sense to all parties.
2 Comments
Cllr Brian Axcell , said: “We would like to see the field brought back into use. It is an eyesore and a health hazard and certainly causes problems for local residents.”
The question Mr Axcell is……. “What type of use do you have in mind?”. Not so many years ago you were hoping to use that land to build a medical centre, to solve the problems caused by the developments of Grappenhall Heyes. Appleton Thorn etc. Rather than pushing for the medical/community facilities that were promised at the time these housing developments were built, you thought that it would be acceptable to take Cobb’s Estate’s open space, cause unbelievable traffic congestion and pollution from traffic from not only the new built South Warrington developments but from areas as far afield as Barnton, which the proposed ‘all hours’ medical centre was to serve. I think that proposal, if you had managed to execute it, would have caused far more problems for local people than a bit of dog dirt on an overgrown field.
It’s just so obvious that excuses are being made to forward some plan or other to try to develop that field.
Why is WBC using public money to maintain that land when maintenance is the responsibility of the Rugby Club, who for the last 14yrs have flouted the terms of the lease and thus should have no right to it’s continuance?
It seems it’s all just an excuse to say that there’s no alternative but to develop the site, but it won’t wash, as local people are not stupid and know that alternatives exist.
After I originally commented I appear to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now every time a comment is added I receive four emails with the exact same comment.
Perhaps there is a way you can remove me from that service?
Thanks a lot!