Community launches campaign to protect green field earmarked for new school

A community has launched a campaign to save a green field which has been earmarked as the location for a new school.

More than a hundred residents who live near the Nine Acre field in Wrexham attended a public meeting over the weekend to voice their opposition to proposals to develop the land.

The space is currently used as a training facility for Wrexham AFC and is also home to an amateur boxing club.

However, at the end of last year, Wrexham Council revealed it had been working with the football club to allow it to move to another location nearby.

The local authority said the National League side’s plans to create a purpose-built training ground next to the former Groves School would free up land at the Nine Acre for a new primary school.

But the suggestion has been met with resistance by people living in Maesydre, who say there is already a shortage of green space in the area.

Lynne Williams, who lives on Westminster Drive, is part of the campaign group calling on the council not to build on the field and open it up for children to play.

She said: “Every town has a statutory duty to keep hold of green space and people have realised that if it goes then we will never get it back.

“More and more people are thinking about where their kids are going to play.

“We all know the town is going to increase in size and the demand for green space is going to increase because of the population.

“There’s no way of replacing it and the council can’t turn around and give us somewhere else within the Maesydre area because there isn’t anything.

“We have information that says there is a lack of play provision for children in this area and the council’s statistics show that, so why do they look at every empty space and think it’s developable?”

The council previously attempted to sell off part of the field for housing under a previous administration in 2004.

However, the plans to raise money to bridge a large overspend on a school re-organisation project were abandoned in the face of a strong public backlash.

Following the u-turn, there was a dispute over access to the site as the authority placed locks on the gates.

Lynne, who is a member of Acton Community Council, said residents would like to see it reopened to the public as a park with a play area, woodland and pond.

She added that campaigners were also keen for the boxing club and a sports pitch to be maintained at the site.

In response to the group’s concerns, Wrexham Council said it stood by its intentions to build a school.

A spokesman said: “The council intends to apply for planning permission to build a primary school on part of the Nine Acre site.

“The Nine Acre field is not a recreation space – it is currently closed to the public, and leased to Wrexham Football Club, with Wrexham Boxing Club also using a building on the site.”

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme).