Fears over loss of vital community field in Walsall

Residents, community groups and ward councillors have launched a campaign to save Swannies Field, on Harden Road and Goscote Lane, Blakenall, after it was named in a list of greenbelt sites for potential housing in the Black Country Plan.

Walsall Council insists no site has been earmarked for housing at this stage and more work will be done before a full consultation later in the year. But campaigners said they want to send a clear message that the field is too vital to the community to lose and more housing is not required.

They said around 1,000 new homes have been built or are in the pipeline around the area including more than 700 on the ‘Goscote Lane Corridor’ development and 100s more on the old Poet’s Estate.

An online petition has already attracted over 500 signatures since it was started this month.

Swannies contains a host of facilities including exercise equipment, picnic area, basketball court, football pitches, children’s play area and a mapped out 5k running route.

Stella Pettifer, chair of the Friends of Swannies Field group, said: “It will be a massive loss to the area. It is well used and utilised, especially the last two years since it was transformed from what it was.

“A lot of money has been spent on it. People use it for jogging, exercising on the gym, playing in the multi-use games area, dog walking, having a stroll, and it is used by the local school.

“I would be devastated if we lose it. I played here as a child and my parents came here when they were young. My mum knew it as a farm before.

“When they finish the developments, we are looking at the best part of 1,000 new houses so I think that is enough. There isn’t the infrastructure to cope as there are waiting lists at schools already.”

Zach Thompson, aged 13, who is also a member of the Friends Group, said: “We do litter picks at least once a month, I use it walking my dog pretty much everyday, play on the skate park, playing football.

“What’s the point of building more houses at the cost of losing the green space, which is the only one we’ve got around here?

“It would have a massive impact on all of us. I’d be very upset to see it go. I’ve spent hours picking it up rubbish to clean it but now someone wants to dig it up. It’s more than just a field.”

Councillor Matt Ward said it had undergone a major transformation over the years, with more than £24,000 from the Postcode and National Lottery funding received in the past 18 months to make improvements.

He added this had helped combat anti-social behaviour and the area had no other field like it.

Councillor Ward said: “For the past 18 months, the Friends of Swannies group have been working here, cutting back all the overgrowth on the hedges to open up the area.

“More people are using it now because of the work we are doing. We have a five year plan to turn it into a confetti field, wild-flower meadows and getting young people involved with it.

“It’s a community asset that we can’t afford to lose."

A Walsall Council spokesman said: “At this stage of the process, no sites have been earmarked for housing.

“The studies that have taken place so far are part of a large amount of technical work that is being carried out as part of the BCP preparation, and will not by themselves determine which sites might be allocated in the plan. There is still more technical work to take place.

“The greenbelt study simply addresses whether areas of the greenbelt satisfy the purposes of greenbelt and if those areas were to be proposed for development what the harm to the greenbelt might be.

“It does not allocate any sites for development. Decisions on that will also use a range of other evidence, including the importance of open spaces.

“A full public consultation will take place from October 2020 for a period of 8 weeks.

“So far, we have only published the evidence we have available now, so that people can begin to see the issues. We will be publishing more evidence – including on open space – between now and the start of the autumn consultation.”