Shame on the RBWM Council

THE LEASE OF 'PUBLIC OPEN SPACE' HAD ALREADY BEEN SIGNED - LONG BEFORE THEY EVEN ADVERTISED THE NOTICE FOR ITS DISPOSAL!!

Four weeks ago we noticed that the Council had made a mistake in not advertising the notice to dispose of open space at Braywick Park for two consecutive weeks and therefore the Council had to start the process a second time. 

Local residents & users of Braywick Park again took pen to paper to object to the loss of the open space, in particular the apple orchard which is the only grassed, dog free area in the whole of Braywick Park. The improvements to the apple orchard as well as the area immediately outside the Nature Centre were carried out only 2 to 3 years ago when the Council received funding through Groundwork South and Britvic. 

Now we find the advertising of the notice was all a sham as the Council had already signed the lease on the 3rd July! (The lease which covers the former Winbury School buildings, the buildings formerly leased to Winbury School and the open space).

(Confirmation received from Emma-Jane Brewerton of Shared Legal Solutions - who we wrote to with objections, and also reported here in an article in the Maidenhead Advertiser.)

According to the March Cabinet Report (click here to read)

" 2.8 The area of land between the two buildings (C) is currently designated Public Open Space. This will become enclosed and will be for the sole use of the school. The public will be consulted on the loss of the Public Open Space. Consultation will occur through the local media. Any objections to the proposed disposal must be considered in accordance with s123(2A) of the Local Government Act 1972. If this part of the site is used for the purposes of school playing field in the future it may fall under the protection afforded to school playing fields and restrict future use.(The DfE definition of playing fields currently includes hardplay spaces)." 

Didn't happen.

"14.1 Braywick Court School has carried out its own consultations with the public. Prior to disposal of the open space RBWM has to advertise notice of intention to dispose of the land in question in accordance with s123 Local Government Act 1972 (as detailed para 5.4 above). "

You already know what we think about the School's 'public consultation'. (Read about it here).

OK, so they did advertise it - BUT ONLY AFTER THEY'D ALREADY GONE AHEAD AND GRANTED THE LEASE ANYWAY... Yay Democracy!(?)

There appears to be a conscious decision on the part of the Council to push through Braywick Court School without any regard to legislative procedures which require the Council to advertise its intention to dispose of the public open space and consider any objections before making its decision.

By not following the correct procedure, the Council has caused an injustice to all those residents who value Braywick Park and its open space.

The residents of Maidenhead deserve better governance from their officers and councillors.

Looks like the Council had forgotten and officers were going through the motions in the hope that residents wouldn't realise the lease had already been signed. Why didn't the council simply put their hands up and say they had made a mistake?

We want an explanation from Councillor Burbage & RBMW's Managing director, Mr. McGaughrin as to why the council granted the lease on 3 July despite the fact that:

- It did not advertise its intention to dispose of the public open space & consider any objections before making its decision 

- It did not consider the need for public open space within the locality when making the decision to dispose of the land.

We still have had no response from any member of the Council on these matters (although Cllr. Dudley HAS been helpful and communicative so far on a few other issues relating to the School, and Ann Pfeiffer has also replied to some of our questions).

However, it continues to look like there's been some pretty underhand, undemocratic stuff going on here... 

The public were not consulted, and the objections were not considered. 

RBWM went ahead and granted the leases without notifying anyone. As they are required to do.

Is this whats going to happen again when the planning application (eventually) gets submitted? 

The one which involves building on the green belt in the middle of Braywick Park? 

Is anyone in the Council going to listen to local residents and users of the park who are against this? Can we believe they will follow the rules when it gets to that point? So far, it would appear that they haven't... 

The same document containing the rules they've already broken contains this section. Maybe they will just grant that lease too? Who cares about planning permission anyway...

"2.7 The Free school will apply for planning permission for any extension to the existing school building and for the new Nature Centre. The latter will be on the basis of drawings and a specification prepared by RBWM. Only if planning permission is granted will the lease for the Braywick Nature Centre be entered into." 

'Lease of Public Open Space' - PART DEUX! The Return of the lease! WRITE BEFORE OCT 1ST

Looks like the council messed up the 'disposal of public space' lease we mentioned here last month, so they've had to re-advertise it & go through the process again!

Despite all of our letters of objection, they STILL GRANTED THE LEASE ANYWAY. Until we pointed out that they had failed to advertise the disposal for 2 consecutive weeks in the Maidenhead Advertiser as they are required to by law. They only did it for one week. 

This is the lease of an area of land in the Winbury School site to the Braywick Court School/Bellevue Place Education Trust, a piece of land that was previously for use by the public, it's the only fenced off part of grassland in the whole of Braywick Park which is dog free, includes some lovely apple trees, and links the Nature Reserve with the Park. 

There still hasn't been any planning application which (according to the drawings and plans they have shown so far) is a massive development on the Winbury site, taking over the Nature Centre - and building a new one in the middle of Braywick park.  

As they are re-advertising this lease, previous letters of objection are Null & Void so please write in again if you did before, and if not, if you object, please write in again! The deadline in October 1st. 

If you object, please write before 1 October to:

Emma-Jane Brewerton, 
Lawyer, Shared Legal Solutions at Wokingham Borough Council,
Civic Offices, 
Shute End, 
Wokingham, 
Berks 
RG40 1WH

Thoughts on the lease that may be helpful if writing to object:

- No objection to the lease of the open space land to BPET were it to facilitate the opening of a school for up to 100 children which did not involve the loss of the Nature Centre.

- OBJECT to the lease of this land to BPET to facilitate the opening of a 210 pupil school for the following reasons:

1.        No planning application has been submitted, much less approved, at this stage and thus it is considered premature to seek the disposal of the land. Given the admissions policy of the school, it is not considered that Bellevue Education Place Trust will be able to demonstrate very special circumstances to warrant development of the new school buildings in the Green Belt. It is understood that the Council is not advertising the public notice for the disposal of the open space outside the Nature Centre until after the planning application has been determined and therefore the same approach should be applied to the open space between the Nature Centre and the former WInbury School.

2.       The orchard area, which forms part of the open space the subject of the public notice, is the only grassed, dog free area in the whole of Braywick Park. If anyone, especially those with small children, want to have a picnic, this is the one place they can go where there are no dog faeces. The Council knows all too well the problem of dog faeces on the playing pitches in Braywick Park. 

3.       In addition, the orchard area was improved as part of Transforming Your Patch, a Groundwork project with funding from Britvic. There were a few apple trees in this area which were struggling; the two best trees were kept and the area around them was fenced in and grassed over. What is the reaction of Groundwork and Transforming Your Patch sponsors to the disposal of this land for the construction of a school building? Will Groundwork or the Council need to reimburse the funds obtained from the sponsor? Would Britvic have provided funding had it known the Council was going to turn around a few years later and dispose of the open space?

4.       The shrubs/brambles in the northern part of the open space the subject of the public notice are a valuable area for wildlife, complementing the Local Nature Reserve (LNR) which is almost adjacent to the north.  The loss of this area will, in a small part, reduce the ecological value of the LNR.     

Given the strong feelings of local residents regarding the disposal of this land to Bellevue Education Place Trust, we would request that the Head of Leisure Services (who, it is understood, has delegated powers to consider the objections) considers stepping aside and referring the matter to the Cabinet for decision (as it was the Cabinet who precipitously agreed to Braywick Court School in March of this year).  This is clearly an option as set out in paragraph 2.5 of Part 5, Scheme of Delegation to Officers.

FYI: Paragraph 2.5 states ‘Where any function is delegated to an officer, that officer may choose not exercise that function and may, instead, refer a matter to the Council, the Cabinet, Committee or relevant Portfolio Holder for decision as appropriate with the agreement of the appropriate Director’.

As the Council had put the previous notice for the disposal of open space in the paper for one week only (they are required to do it for two consecutive weeks), they have re-advertised the notice this past Thursday and will presumably do so again next week.  So letters of objections need to be in by the 1 October.  Any letters sent the last time are null and void so people need to send new letters.

Here's the notice in the Maidenhead Advertiser last week. Lucky we spotted it right?! Conveniently easy to miss? 

Close-up of the notice.

The area in red is the piece of land this particular lease relates to.

'Lease of Public Open Space' WRITE BEFORE 28 AUGUST IF OBJECTING

Hidden away on page 8 of the Maidenhead Advertiser is the notice that RBWM has agreed to lease the land adjoining the Braywick Nature Centre to Bellevue Place Education Trust. Land that is 'public open space'. See the red area on the map below.

There are no signs mentioning this around Braywick Park - so it's very easy to miss out information on what is being done. 

They have already agreed to grant the lease, so it will go ahead (unless enough people write with objections). Just as the new parking restrictions & introduction of 8 permit-holder-only parking bays IN THE PUBLIC CAR PARK went ahead without any consultation, and just as they have already gone ahead and dug up the new path through the beautiful wilderness area at the back of Braywick Park for the 'Walking Bus' (which the school cannot force parents to use).

If you object to this please write before 28 August to:

Emma-Jane Brewerton, 
Lawyer, 
Shared Legal Solutions at Wokingham Borough Council, 
Civic Offices, Shute End, 
Wokingham, 
Berks 
RG40 1WH

Thoughts on the lease that may be helpful if writing to object:

No objection to the lease of the open space land to BPET were it to facilitate the opening of a school for up to 100 children which did not involve the loss of the Nature Centre.

OBJECT to the lease of this land to BPET to facilitate the opening of a 210 pupil school when there are so many unresolved issues including;

* significant increase in traffic generation and related road safety concerns;

* the loss of the Nature Centre;

* the building of a new nature centre in the middle of the park which would cause irrevocable harm to the formal gardens;

* the building of a large two storey school building which, according to plans seen to date, would be totally out of character with the surrounding area; and

* the loss of parking for users of Braywick Park.

The lease should not be granted until such time as a planning permission has been granted and the issues referred to above have been resolved in a satisfactory manner, if that indeed were possible.