RECENT ACTIVITY ON THE AIRFIELD PROMPTS CONCERNS FROM RESIDENTS

On behalf of the Parish Council the Clerk makes the following comments

"We are also in the dark at the Parish Council regarding the gate. Just a little history, as I understand there may have been some negative comments on face book.

In September 2018 - yes nearly two years ago- The Parish council called a public meeting to discuss the Airfield to try and get stewardship of the area and try to obtain use for residents and visitors officially. As you know the land is private, and we are all trespassers!

The Parish Council made approaches to Homes England after their purchase of the land (with our public money by the way).

The residents at the time rejected what the Parish Council were trying to obtain and were asked by residents to go back ask for a greater area of land and for a longer period of time

Since then the Council and in particular our Chair Sally Edwards has been relentless in pushing Homes England for meetings, and an answer to our new proposals. What was noticeably clear was that their communication (or lack of it) with us was awful and it was not until the last couple of months that the Parish Council have managed to have a decent dialogue with them.

The Parish Council have stuck to the original requests by residents in 2018 and finally they have not dismissed the idea out of hand and have asked us to come back with some ideas of what we would do with the land if we were granted a tenancy/stewardship. Very initial ideas have been a memorial park to celebrate the history of the Airfield and wildlife area. The Councils logic was to see if they agreed and then we would go back to the residents and explain what the result was. We did not want to speak with the residents and then get told by Homes England it was a no go!

Sally Edwards again pushed Homes England to remove the ugly concrete bollards which as residents will know have now been removed, however there was no mention of a gate during our conversations.

I do know from other residents that Homes England have been carrying out boundary repairs within the airfield, so I am assuming they have reopened this access for that purpose and of course to assert their rights over the land!

From our recent conversations the Airfield will be the very last area of land sucked into the Otterpool Development so I do not think the entrance is anything too sinister, but the Council will be asking!

My only concern now is that this does offer a quick access to persons we would not want to get onto the airfield, but we will have to wait and see.

I hope this puts you in the picture about what the Parish Council have been doing, struggling to move forward. What Homes England's plans are.... who knows.”?

Please note that any assumptions made within this article are those of the Clerk and not of the Council. If you require any more information, please contact the Council through this website or on lympnepc@outlook.com