Due to the cancellation or more likely postponement of the recent Hemsworth Town Council meeting to discuss the sale of the Allotment site at Fitzwilliam, Ferret thinks that it’s an ideal time for everyone to take a step back, especially the Town Council and pause for thought and give the whole community the opportunity to assess what is really needed at this site for the benefit of Fitzwilliam and also the whole township.
We’ve heard about more football pitches for Fitzwilliam, so perhaps our local enthusiasts could put a case together to demonstrate the need for additional pitches. The same also applies to any other sport that believe they would benefit from any extra capacity and investment, after all there are more people, even youngsters that don’t play football than do.
The site is a large one, already owned by us (just) and could certainly be made multi-use with ease. It is also better placed within our Township to bring a balance to the provision of services than Mr Jim Kenyon’s disaster headed, hair brained ego boosting scheme at Kirkby road Hemsworth.
What if it is shown that we have sufficient sporting facilities or what is needed doesn’t require the whole site as it is a large one?
To widen the debate, and given the current concerns about the need to go green to protect the environment and our children’s futures, one possible use for the site or part of the site could be as a Solar Farm. The site appears to be in an ideal location for such a project. This could be done in partnership with a suitable company, preferably one not recommended by Councillor Eccles.
This would not only be a green project, but would bring in revenue every year to help reduce the burden of the precept on our residents.
Ferret would love to hear your ideas and thoughts for the future of this site, the possibilities are many.
It has good highway access thanks to the forward thinking of the last Council, is adjacent to the railway station and bus routes and network electrical and water services.
If you don’t want to air your views here, contact the Council direct or better still involve a Councillor or some other person you trust directly.
As a community we should all have the opportunity to have input into any major scheme such as this. It will be interesting to see what ideas do come forward although I fear that our residents will feel it is a lost cause and a waste of time trying to reason with Mr Kenyon. One thing is for sure no assets should be sold just to make cash available for the Councillors to waste on themselves.
Football facilities are well used in the area, however they are not without problems. For example hemsworth high school since becoming an academy are not always as accommodating these days.
Having said that we need multifunctional facilities, but we can’t be everything to everyone. No community likes ours is big enough or has enough money to facilitate every activity. You can’t expect to have purpose built facilities for all activities. I don’t think we can expect to have everything on our doorsteps. Sometimes you will have to travel to do some things, we have cricket clubs in the area (nostel, Kirkby), I think there is tennis at the Quaker school, we have minsthorpe for swimming we have athletics in the area (Pontefract, Wakefield). These activities are not free, even the football isn’t free subs have to be paid and parents have to get their kids to games which are not always local, coaches give their time for free. There also has to be non sporting activities as not everyone is sport minded. This is why we need multifunctional facilities. There has to be a the need for the activities, people giving their time to run such things will possibly have to pay for the hire of rooms if they are paying for hire, it’s no use only a couple of people turning up paying subs etc if it doesn’t cover costs.
A lot of thought and discussion needs to be done to make sure it will pay for itself. This unfortunately us where the JK cabal falls short every single time it’s all knee jerk with no planning no research. It’s all vanity projects and personal money making projects. Also as said before they do not listen. They in there warped minds think they know what we want, what is good for us and we should be grateful for that, you only need to see and hear their contempt for “the parishioners” in meetings. The way JK says “the parishioners” is condescending. He looks down on us and this like were stupid and basically its just be quiet I’m doing this for your own good.
All this will need a lot of time, discussion and proper planning. I fear that the cabal will rush whatever their intentions are through and with no consultation with us “the parishioners”.
The sooner the cabal is out the better
I agree with almost all that has been said, we only differ on one point and that is they do what is best for themselves regardless of the costs and impact it will have on us.
Exactly that
If the land is being sold purely to balance the books and pay for litigation to finance the football parties grandiose scheme to cover Hemsworth in football pitches then I say a curse on all their houses. I’ll repeat it again there is no shortage of football facilities in this parish if anything there is a surplus of them. Hamelsworde raises valid points regarding the high school not being accommodating in respect of use of their fields, if this is the case then maybe HTC and district council and MP should be having serious discussion with them as to why they aren’t. Then again maybe HTC is too busy pursuing projects of past glories that they haven’t even had the sense to carry out financially assessment on. As for woodlands and the Fitzwilliam allotments don’t waste your time and energy theyll be developed theres a shortage of housing in the area no one place can stay static with a local administration whose ideas are pie in the sky and utterly unrealistic
Don’t be silly it’s not hemsworth why would Kenyon want to improve Fitzwilliam in any way when it’s not his domain
Like he stated they have a war memorial and a car park what else do they need 🙄
This piece of land has been unused for a number of years, which is sad. This is probably why it’s now thought of as an excellent site for more affordable housing.
However, the houses which were built quite recently in Fitzwilliam cost far more than the long standing housing stock, by quite a significant margin. This means that they’re not built for the socially less well off in the village, but for more affluent first time buyers outside our community, or second time buyers moving up the ladder. So, are the people who currently live in Fitzwilliam/Hemsworth okay with more of these houses being built in our community, or is it time to say we are “full up” ie no more capacity in Schools, Doctors Surgeries, traffic on the roads, Dentists……etc.
The additional housing in Fitzwilliam over the last 10 years hasn’t proportionally increased the Precept income for Hemsworth, into which we which we all pay, so WMDC must be benefiting from the additional council tax revenue.
Also, the amount of the annual Precept which Hemsworth Councillors have to invest (on our behalf) has not been invested in any amenities in Fitzwilliam since May 2019. We had a small Xmas tree last year!
And, on top of this, there will have been Section 106 additional funding, as a result of all the additional houses. I can’t see how the community in Fitzwilliam have benefited from this additional money in any way, other than (maybe) an extended car park at the train station, which is for the benefit of commuters outside of Fitzwilliam.
So, taking all this into account, it’s my opinion that we have been massively short changed.
It’s time we saw real investment into our village, in all sorts of ways.
Personally, I think the land presents us with a huge opportunity to develop a unique facility for both Fitzwilliam and the Wakefield district. I can envisage an indoor/outdoor arena as a cultural entertainment space – used for all sorts of community events and performances. A modern designed space, but eco friendly with plenty of local talent to showcase. A place which could develop drama, music, singing, poetry, dancing, conversation, debating…..skills. We could stage national events eg Gardeners World, Question Time, Literary Festivals, mini crufts, celebrity interviews, snooker championships………..the potential is endless.
Yes, this is ambitious – but it’s something in which everyone in our community could benefit, not just footballers.
It would be a long term collaborative project to design and build – but how exciting would that be?!
Please think bigger than “the usual” – we deserve better.
Kenyon does nothing that doesn’t benefit him
Your vision sounds fantastic, Linda – Maybe email this to the Fitzwilliam Councillors and the Clerk?
Thank you Ferret – I’m glad you think so.
If I were to share it at local level, I tend to think it might scare them a bit ie there’ll be so many reasons they could think up to not embrace the idea.
But, if I could present it to Cllr Jeffries and Jon Tirckett, and gain the interest of the Arts Council (and the like), the idea might stand a chance of taking off to a Feasibility Review (eg scale, funding, demand, design features, infrastructure) which would be great.
But, it would also need to be “Owned” locally – ie it’ll be a community led project!
At the moment, we have no way of knowing what local opinions are!
where is the car park
I’ve no idea of the size of this piece of land. I did ask that a councillor put forward that no money from the sale of this land should be used to pay of court costs or anything to do with Kirkby road complex.
Not knowing the size of the land but could it be used for a swimming baths? Just a thought. In saying that I do love Linda’s idea too
Alottments
It is the rough looking area on that link.
Vicky, I totally agree – but I’m still peeved that there was no public consultant on the decision to sell this land. Everyone knew apart from the residents! This land belongs to the community so I’d be amazed if the sale is legal, if it goes ahead. I will not be amazed to find out that certain individuals would benefit from the sale. So annoying if this happens.
If we could get a Grand Scheme off the ground, I could envisage a long shopping list of potential uses, including a swimming pool. The area available seems perfect to me. Access down Station Road could be an issue (as it’s already too narrow for the amount/type of traffic), but potentially, another access road could be developed via the Car Boot field (- maybe a bit of a ring road even, to ease traffic along Wakefield Road through Fitzwilliam – but that’s part of a Feasibility). And maybe access from Ackworth could be improved too.
The train access is absolutely perfect.
I have had a career supporting projects worth £millions but have no experience working with Local Councils. In my mind, this could be a fantastic asset for the area and I don’t think it’s impossible.
A solid open and honest discussion with everyone locally would be my proposed first step, once Christmas is done n dusted maybe.