AN APPEAL TO HARRIERS AND OTHER SPORTING GROUPS

Most regions have traditions which are associated with Boxing Day. The “Boxing Day Dip” is possibly the best known for our area, an unenviable short swim in the very cold water that is the North Sea. Madness!

A less insane but no doubt equally painful tradition is the South Shields Athletic and Harrier Clubs “Boxing Day Parloff”, an event which has been held annually (continually) for at least 25 years, but one which has a much longer history. Basically the event involves runners being drawn from a hat as pairs. One runner from the team stands half way around the track. His fellow member starts running towards him from the start. When they meet, the second runner continues the lap. The first runner turns around and either walks, jogs or runs (depending on fitness ability) back to the finish and/or meets his partner coming the other way. The process is repeated. The first pair to run two miles in this way are the winners and receive a trophy for a year. It may sound complicated, but it isn’t.

This year saw a RECORD turn out for the event, with eleven teams competing, with treble the number of family members watching the event. And it was all washed down with coffee and mince pies. All in all, a great community event and as a reflection of the health of the Club at the moment, a good day for the voluntary organisers and runners.

The sad thing is however, if the Gypsies Green development goes ahead, it will be the LAST Boxing Day event ever.

THERE WILL BE NO NEW RUNNING TRACK OR STADIUM BUILT TO ACCOMMODATE THE CLUB WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS AT LEAST

A GREAT TRADITION WILL HAVE BEEN DESTROYED

THE BOROUGH WILL LOOSE A VALUABLE COMMUNITY GROUP WHICH ENCOURAGES AND HELPS YOUNG PEOPLE MAKE MORE OF THEIR LIVES

The time has come for South Shields Harriers and other interested sporting groups to come of the fence and lend their support and voice to the fight to oppose the Tavistock development. The Council can prevaricate and promise as much as they want, but no new facilities will emerge.

Join us now and let’s stop this development in its tracks!

NEWS IS SPREADING FAST

A post has appeared on The Northern Herald site today concerning the Common Land and Town and village Green Committee which meets later next week. We first looked at this option on 30th December. However, it looks like a battle lies ahead for Mr Ahmed Khan’s attempt to protect large areas of land on the sea front and adjoining parks.

Follow this link to read the post in full.

http://thenorthernherald.blogspot.com/2008/01/hidden-agenda.html

The Northern Herald has always supported and promoted out cause. It has also out lined the new information which has appeared today, for which we are grateful.

As their post states, we still need to attend this meeting regardless of the anticipated outcome. The Council must realize they are not going to get a free run when it comes to carving up our heritage for financial gain.

COMMON LAND AND TOWN AND VILLAGE GREENS COMMITTEE
9TH JANUARY 2008
4 P.M. MAIN COUNCIL CHAMBER
PUBLIC CAN ATTEND

THE BEACON NEWSLETTER

Below is the text of a newsletter which has been distributed within the Beacon and Bents Ward by prospective Independent Councillor Mr Ahmed Khan. The link between what happens in the ward is an intrinsic element of the Gypsies Green development plans. The letter makes very interesting reading.

Many thanks to George for passing it on to us.

THE BEACON
Newsletter Update

ARBEIA FORT DEVELOPMENT & TOWN GREEN APPLICATION.

I am writing to you to give you an update on the proposed Arbeia Fort Development & my application to register our sea front parks as a Town Green. If successful this would ensure our parks & open spaces would be protected from the constant threat of development/sell off by the council to plug any financial black holes created by there own mismanagement. It would also ensure that they are preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Many of you will be aware that I organised 2 public meetings on 10th & 31st July. At the second meeting I outlined a programme of action including registering the parks as a Town Green & organising 2 petitions – one opposing any Arbeia ‘visitor’ development in North Marine Park & one calling on South Tyneside Council to support the application for a own Green.

Councillor JOHN WOOD (accompanied by John Anglin) was present at the second meeting following a public invitation in the Gazette. You may recall Councillor WOOD’s comment about preserving our seafront! Remember those comments ‘our seafront is sacred’ and “you don’t hear about all the schemes put forward for the seafront’? Well Cllr. WOOD we wouldn’t if we’re not told & if you & your colleagues in the Cabinet push everything through secretly. Worse still you try & justify not telling us on the grounds of commercial sensitivity! I’ll return to ‘our sacred seafront’ later.

Whilst I was preparing the application & many of you were collecting signatures for the petitions it appears that Councillor WOOD immediately reported back to his Cabinet colleagues who in turn appear to have taken action in an attempt to undermine our application. How else would you explain the sudden appearance of 41 signs erected around the seafront parks on or around the 6th August (a week after the meeting) that Councillor WOOD attended? The wording on the signs states:

This park is owned by South Tyneside Council. Use of this park is not as of right for the purpose of section 22 of the Commons Registration Act 1965 (as amended). Use of this land is by right or else with the revocable permission of South Tyneside Council.

To understand the true meaning of the above statement one needs to understand the rules governing Town and Village Green Applications. In essence most applications for Town Green status are made using the 20 year rule. In effect you have to prove that the land in question has been used continually for 20 years or more for recreational/leisure purposes, the 20 years is backdated from the date of the application. In recent years many landowners have taken to either fencing land off or erecting signs stating that people using the land have no rights in relation to registering the land under the 20 year rule as soon as they find out about an impending application. The erection of the 41 signs by South Tyneside Council were a clear attempt to remove the public’s right to register the land under this rule as defined by the 1965 Act. The fact that these signs were erected so quickly & were in place before the application was received by the registration authority (who also happens to be South Tyneside Council) would normally have torpedoed any application to register the land as we would no longer be able to prove 20 years of continuous use. Cleary this demonstrates the fact that the council are not in favour of preserving our parks and open spaces & that that they may well have plans to sell off &/or build on our last remaining parks & open spaces.

It may interest you to know that I am in possession of council correspondence that state categorically the reasons why these signs were erected, here is a quote from the correspondence,

“The erection of the signs highlights the Council's ownership of the land and was deemed necessary to defend a Village Green application”.
… see overleaf
Interesting then that the council had not received an application to register the land at this stage, so where did the information come from? It doesn’t take a genius to work out that it more than likely came from Councillor JOHN WOOD & co.

The 41 signs refer to section 22 of the Commons Registration Act 1965 & clearly state that the public have no rights to claim the 20 year rule. However, this act was superceeded by the Commons Act 2006 which came into effect in April 2007. It seems that the Council were unaware of this new legislation despite receiving regular updates from DEFRA. If the had been they would not have erected signs quoting legislation that is no longer relevant, in effect the signs appear to be worthless. However the cost to you & I for yet another example of incompetence exceeds £800.

As far as the new Act is concerned Section 15 changes the legal definition of a town or village green and sets out the qualifying circumstances in which land may be newly registered. Essentially anyone can apply to have land registered as a green if it has been used by local people for recreation ‘as of right’ (i.e. without permission, force or secrecy) for at least 20 years. Interestingly it eliminates the problem of landowners withdrawing consent by either fencing the area off or stopping the public accruing ‘rights’ as South Tyneside Council have tried to do.

Instead the act provides a period of grace (currently 2 years) after use of land by local people ‘as of right’ has been ended by the landowner (as the council did on or around 6th August 2007), when an application to register it as a green can still be made (under the old legislation, an application had to be made immediately after use ‘as of right’ had been ended) which explains the council’s urgency to erect the signs!

On 24th August 2007 I submitted an application to South Tyneside Council to register land at North & South Marine Parks, Bents Park & Bents Park Recreational Ground (the Dragon) as a Town Green which was subsequently rejected due to a minor date error. I re-submitted the application on 5th October 2007 & this was duly accepted on 18th October.

Now back to Councillor WOOD’s ‘our seafront is sacred’ comment. Well since the public meetings & the announcement that a Town Green application was imminent there has been a flurry of activity on the seafront. Perhaps Councillor WOOD’s definition of ‘sacred’ really means spoilt or was it Costa Del Shields? However, we might call it something different, how about asset stripping or selling off the family silver? Let’s hope for the sake of future generations Santa was kind to him & left him a dictionary or better still a conscience. Here are a few examples of what Cllr WOOD really meant, judge for yourself?

1. The decision making Cabinet (of which Councillor JOHN WOOD is a member) announces plans to ‘sell’ Gypsies Green Stadium to Durham Estates Ltd so Tavistock Leisure can build a hotel & conference centre.

2. The Cabinet agrees to ‘sell’ (sorry lease) Sandhaven Caravan Park for 125 years to Northumbrian Leisure Ltd for a fee of £1.2 million with an annual ground rent of ‘one peppercorn’.

3. According to the South Tyneside Local Development Framework there are plans to ‘sneak’ through an expansion of the site in 2011. This includes a ‘small’ expansion of 1.2 hectares by encouraging on the adjacent Bents Recreation Ground, increasing the overall size to 4 hectares.

4. The Council asks Tribal Consultants to carry out a study looking at options for a new seafront leisure facility, an exercise that will cost around £40,000 in fees (on top of the £60,000 for the Arbeia Fort Report)

On the 18th December I received a letter informing me that the application had been referred to the Common Land and Town and Village Green Committee for preliminary consideration. The committee will meet on 9th January at the Town Hall (main council chamber) at 4pm. The meeting is open to the public and I strongly urge anyone who can attend to do so. This is the first stage of what I anticipate to be a long hard battle, a battle that I feel we can & must win on behalf of the people of South Tyneside, the wider region & more importantly the generations to come.

One final thought … Let’s not forget that once our precious parks and open spaces have gone they’ve gone forever, is this the legacy we want to leave future generations?

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a belated merry Christmas & best wishes for a happy & prosperous 2008.

Ahmed Khan
60 Julian Avenue, South Shields. NE33 2EW.
Tel. 0191 4560326
e-mail ahmed@beaconandbents.info

SAVE OUR SEAFRONT NEWSLETTER

Here isa news letter for you to read. Over the next few days the text outlined below will be distributed to all homes and businesses in the sea front and surrounding area (we will even pop a copy into the Tavistock restaurant!)

Please make a note of the following dates:

PUBLIC MEETING
THURSDAY 17 JANUARY
7.00 P.M.
NEW CROWN PUB

FULL COUNCIL MEETING
THURSDAY 24 JANUARY
3 P.M. SOUTH SHIELDS TOWN HALL
FUND RAISING SOCIAL EVENING
SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY
7.30 P.M.
NEW CROWN PUB
(TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND THE NEW CROWN)


January 2008
Save Our Seafront

Campaign to save Gypsies Green

Local residents have been working since last summer to oppose the sale of Gypsies Green Sports Stadium for the development of a hotel. We have had several public meetings in the New Crown pub. It has been clear that there is broad local opposition to a hotel and support for the council keeping this as a real leisure facility – ideally upgrading the stadium.

In October we formed a committee to ensure the campaign keeps up the pressure:

Chair - Gordon Finch
Secretary - Shirley Ford
Treasurer - Ann Moon
Media Co-ordinator - Geraldine White
Website Co-ordinator - Rosemary Biggs
Committee members – Shirley Hunt, Maureen Donnelly, Margaret Taroni, Steve Pattison

The committee meets every fortnight on Monday evening in the New Crown. We have formed an association with a constitution recommended by the local Council for Voluntary Service.

We have kept the issue in the public eye, with letters to the Shields Gazette and press releases resulting in a steady flow of articles in the Gazette and other papers. We have attended full Council meetings to ask questions to hold the councillors to account and protested outside the local Community Area Forum.

The public pressure seems to have been working as so far the company named as the preferred bidder, Tavistock (Durham Estates), has not submitted a planning application yet. We have contacted the users of Gypsies Green stadium and although they have been promised “alternative facilities”, they are all very concerned about this.

Gathering signatures for our petition has continued, with concerted efforts in King Street, the Nook and Jarrow.

REMEMBER … if you haven’t signed the petition yet or know people who want to sign it, petition forms are available at any time in the New Crown Pub.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Public Meeting

Thursday 17 January

7.00 pm

New Crown Pub


Full Council Meeting

Thursday 24 January

3.00 pm

South Shields Town Hall


Fundraising Social Evening

Saturday 9 February

7.30 pm

New Crown Pub
(tickets available from committee members & the New Crown)

HOW TO CONTACT US

Email: saveourseafront@hotmail.co.uk
Website: www.gypsiesgreen.blogspot.com
or leave a message for us in the New Crown pub