Reply to comment, Play Park.

Comment reply, Are you accusing the Child minder of cheating in some way?

Written for the Blog by a Preston resident.

At this point, no I’m not accusing the child minder of cheating in anyway, I am questioning the wisdom of a councillor using a charity of which only councillors are trustees, with no resident representation. Such an action can very easily be misinterpreted, especially given this councillors occupation and proximity to the Play Park, which can only damage the efforts of the person in question succeeding in her project.

There is a precedent for this when the old administration set up the New Community Hall Charity and sought to build a Hall at a cost of something in the order of £400,00. This was all done very secretively without any consultation of residents and without any resident involvement, the whole thing was a farce from start to finish and ended up costing ratepayers many thousands of pounds with nothing to show for it. In fact I would suggest that there was so much secrecy that all documents relating to this project have been ‘hidden’ somewhere by the council in order that residents are denied access to that information.

The council did apply for grant funding but to achieve that income they would have to demonstrate that a village consultation had been carried out showing strong support for the project, but still the council wouldn’t ask residents. The record of Preston Parish Council on such projects is not a good one and if that one cost the parish so much money with nothing to show for it what assurances do we have that this one won’t follow suite?

If the organizers for the Play Park are raising funds by their own efforts and hope to fund the whole project without turning to the public purse they could easily open a bank account in whatever name they call themselves and not use the Preston Playing Fields Charity (PPFC) as a vehicle. As it stands and according to the leaflet we received PPFC is being used as a holding account so we (residents) are already involved in the scheme and therefore have a right to ask questions.

Being open and transparent would be far more helpful to you and I believe would help your efforts a great deal. Produce a document that outlines the scheme, deliver it to all households and organise a consultation venue over perhaps 2 or 3 days to accommodate people who work being able to attend at some point convenient to them, this could also be dealt with by utilizing the Parish Council website.  Give an overview of your project with slides etc. possibly powerpoint and have all documentation prepared so any attendees can record their views in writing and arrange an independent person or group to collate figures. You would then hopefully be in a position to demonstrate the strong support for your project and take it forward with confidence.

It isn’t for me to say how you should conduct a consultation, that is a matter for yourselves but it is important that you get it right first time.

If following any such consultation there is the required support for your project, I will tell you the same as I told the council in relation to their project. If support is shown to exist at a predetermined level I would not only support their efforts I would actively campaign in their support. You have an offer there if you are prepared to be open and transparent.

I can recall a leaflet being delivered in about November 2012 informing us that the scheme was well on the way at a cost of £144,000 and construction was due to start in early 2013. I understand at that time the organizers had managed to raise a couple of thousand pounds towards the cost of the project, where was the balance coming from, I believe the leaflet informed us that an amount from ‘commuted’, sums was earmarked for the financial pot. This is money held by East Riding for Preston so Preston residents are already financially involved, I also understand that the organizers had ‘coffee mornings’ to generate support and a number of mothers had been asked their opinion when picking up their children from school. That doesn’t exactly amount to a consultation of residents, if public funds are to be used I happen to believe that the public should be given a chance to voice there opinion and have a say in whether or not the scheme is a worthy cause, especially in light of the Parish Councils history.

Personally I have absolutely no objection to a Play Park being erected at the pavilion for the use of children and if the organizers are raising the full sums needed then I applaud their efforts and wish them well.

I understand there used to be a play park at the pavilion which had to be demolished and removed because of vandalism, the proposed park would need the involvement of the police in the planning stage in order that when the park is complete and residents need to have unruly youths (if there are any) removed from the facility during closing or nighttime hours the police are in a position to act on the requests. I also understand that the play park would not have the benefit of security fencing, which raises other questions.

My understanding from the previous Parish Council Chairman is that youths used to break bottles and glue the glass onto the slide, who would want their children sliding down that? Without a security fence that had to be opened in the morning who would carry out any safety inspection before any child used the area? You might consider the risk of such an event as small, but on the off chance that it did happen the consequences for any innocent child could well be catastrophic, that can only raise the risk profile.

I also understand you now have the assistance of another councillor to progress the scheme and I wish you well. We shall be publishing a post on ‘Preston Charities’ in the near future and your activity I’m sure will feature in that, it would be very welcome if we could list your activity in a positive light, if you would like to contact us please do so by email and we will give you our assurance of anonymity. If you have any details that might help your cause and wish to have them published here we would be very pleased to do that for you, but without prior discussion we would assess the details on merit and comment accordingly

I do hope this answers your comment.

Thank you for reading and for your comment.