CALL FOR VOLUNTARY VILLAGE GREEN STATUS

FOR KINGSMEAD FIELD!

At Wednesday night's Overview Committee meeting,

councillors adopted a cross-party unanimous recommendation

calling for the voluntary registration of Kingsmead Field as a Village Green

We are very grateful to all the Councillors who spoke up in support of the recommendation.  A very special thanks to Cllr Ashley Clark who made an impassioned, personal plea for Kingsmead Field to be registered as a Village Green.  Ashley has played a key role in helping Duncan Down in Whitstable become one of the largest Village Greens in the country.  A copy of his speech is given below:

Vision was once described as having the image of the Cathedral whilst one is mixing the cement.  50 years from now when the dust has settled what will be the judgement on this Council’s current vision.

Will they remember it for bringing a bigger Sainsburys to Kingsmead, for a bigger cinema and for a leisure centre which  ... Oh dear! needs another makeover?  Will they say? They built more houses but at least they left a bit left for a dogs’ toilet but they made money. They knew the price of everything.

Or will they say here was a Council that did a good job. It knew the price of most things but it knew the value as well and it had the courage to save and protect a small patch of land by the river so that future generations would have somewhere in this busy city to reflect, relax for a moment, smile and enjoy the simple things: the leaves of autumn the new flowers in the spring and the joy of a river paddle in the balmy summer days. Here was a Council that won the hearts and minds of the local people ,that thought of the long term and not just of today, a council that served its citizens and did not merely prescribe and a Council that did what was right and refused to betray trust for thirty pieces of silver.

I know what I would wish and a golden opportunity presents itself. The paperwork is simple.  A voluntary dedication of a village green consists of one short form, a declaration and a map a couple of hours of officer time.

This year we commemorate the courage and sacrifice of the young men of this District who gave their all for the simple pleasures and freedoms that we sometimes take for granted. In many ways they were no different from our young people today. The dedication of this small patch of land to the memory of what they stood for and would have wanted might be a fitting tribute indeed.