Save our Recreation Spaces from the Lib/Dem Development.

Please vote for me tomorrow and

Save our Recreation Spaces from the Lib/Dem Development.

Eastleigh Town area is already short of recreation space, well below the national standard. Now it is proposed to take away more of the Leigh Road Recreation Ground to allow Sainsbury's to build a new store. This follows land already taken as a hard paved area alongside the present building for parking and more recently taking public land to extend "The Point".

It was not so long ago that the Lib Dem Council wanted to build on Grantham Green. Fortunately the public reaction was such that this has been shelved for now.
They took the allotments in South Street which were sold for over £10 million. They are now taking allotments in Woodside Avenue.They closed the Fleming Park Golf Course depriving young people of the opportunity to enjoy golf. Botley Park Golf Course is included in the proposed Local Plan for the development of over a thousand homes.

The recreation ground at Doncaster Farm together with land at Stoneham Park is also included in the Local Plan to build 1300 dwellings. Whilst the Council stand to gain many £millions, this will deprive residents in the South of the Borough of a recreation ground and part of the strategic gap between Eastleigh and Southampton will disappear.

There is also a proposal to relocate the Household Waste Recycling Centre at Woodside Avenue to land at Stoneycroft Rise off Chestnut Avenue which will affect the recently developed Freespace enjoyed by many hundreds of young people  with its BMX track.  It is also in the Strategic Gap between Eastleigh and Southampton.

If development takes place at Allington, it is proposed to build a new road through part of the Itchen Valley Country Park, a protected area of Special Scientific Interest.

If the "Rose Bowl" [now "Ageas Bowl"] is purchased, might we find some of that Land allocated for development and if the Civic Offices are relocated  to the Town Centre, might we see  in any sale of the present office and adjacent Magistrates Court for re-devlopment part of Fleming Park included?

There may be more plans, we have a duty to residents to be vigilant. We need to protect our recreation areas. Once they have gone, they are gone forever.
As a Council that purports to encourage healthy living, they do little to help. As well as taking away recreation land, they increase charges  for the use of recreational facilities by more than inflation every year.

Godfrey Olson.