Haywards Field and selling family silver
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The potential delay in the Council selling off Haywards Field in Llay is great news but other areas need to be alert to the Council looking to sell other open spaces. The Council will probably have budgeted for the income from the field – if they don’t get income from Llay they will be looking at other sites.
If you want to protect your open spaces then get it registered with Fields in Trust. The Council can only sell the family silver once — if it all goes now what will be left for future geeneratiions.
REIt is great news about Hayward’s field being deferred until next year. The council however were not selling the land, they were gifting it for £1!
I agree we need to protect our public open spaces, this field is one of the last bit of village green left this side of Llay. It is vital for our children and other residents who use this field regularly!Why do I get the feeling that Haywards field & the other development are interlinked? Is it an either/or situation?
@zinger 16215 wrote:
Why do I get the feeling that Haywards field & the other development are interlinked? Is it an either/or situation?
I don’t think there is a link, just coincidence in the timing.
Hayward’s field is Public open space owned by Wrexham Council. The save Hayward’s field campaign group spotted a flaw in the public open space assessment carried out in 2009 and after this was brought to the executive boards attention in October, the matter has been deferred until the new public open space assessment has been completed.
The development on Gresford road is private land and therefore out of Wrexham Councils control.
I am surprised if the Council were gifting the field for £1 — can you clarify was it £1 to the developer if so I am sure the Wales Audit office would need to see a very strong reason from the Council as to why they were disposing of an asset below market price even if it was going to be entirely social housing.
Also does anyone know of the origin of the name Hayward’s Field — was it gifted to the area by someone ‘Hayward’ who left t for the use of the community and nit for development. Sorry of these avenue have already been explored.Yes it was definitely to be gifted for £1! We queried this and have written confirmation that this was the case.
The field used to belong to Hayward’s farm. Some of the older residents of the village do seem to think that the land was given to the council by Mr Hayward to be used for the residents of the village to enjoy, but we can’t verify this.I would try the Land Registry — Wrexham and other Councils have been caught out before trying to sell off assets that did not belonging to them. It is also very suspicious if they are gifting it for £1 – this sounds like a dodge in case their is a subsequent claim about who owns the land.
If the Hayward that owned the farm left a will that could be a source of information to track down the ownership or the Probate office.
Have the Council offered the Community Council or local Community Group the land for £1.
Don’t give up hope yet.Not sure if it is a coincidence as the new plan for the Gresford Road site has an allocation of Flats and Housing Association houses which I believe is what they wanted to build on Haywards Field. So all we can assume now is that the council will not have to fund these flats so will not cost them.
All green spaces in Llay should be saved and preserved.
Wrexham Council would not contribute anything to any of the building costs regardless of the location as they do not build any property now. The financial arrangement with Housing Associations in Wrexham is either WG funding or from the Private Sector.
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