Thursday, July 11, 2013

Friars Park, Skate Park, Edwinstowe Parish Council,

Emails I receive often highlight Rutland and Oakham is not the only place where Councils don't listen to
their residents.

Here is an example of one received yesterday:


I notice your article from Sept 2012 regards Councillor John Peck, and was wondering if you had any other information on him and his corrupt ways.

We live in Edwinstowe on the new Barratt Homes site and for the last 5 months the Residents of Friars Park have had their lives turned upside down by the news of a Skate Park being built by our houses.

It all started when i just happened to go onto the Edwinstowe website to complain to the parish council about dog mess and litter.

Whilst i was on the website i thought i would have a quick look at the parish council minutes from recent meetings.

It was the Jan 2012 minutes that triggered a concern, it says (12/117 Agenda) Before any decision is made, public consultations will take place especially with the Residents in the vicinity of the desired location.

These minutes also mentions about the 400 Residents who signed the skate park petition in favour,  we have requested to see said petition and 61 of those were not post codes from Edwinstowe.

I sent an email to the Parish Council on 06/02/2013 asking them if they could tell me the site of the Desired location of the Skate Park, and their reply was "The site of the Skate Park has not been decided yet and any site will be subject to the usual planning permissions.

Once a site has been identified, but not yet finalised, Residents will be invited to a public consultation".

I have the emails as proof. One Sunday afternoon few weeks later the Residents of Friars Park received a news letter through their doors saying "Edwinstowe Skate Park A Dream Come True", and also suddenly mentions the that Jubilee Park is the location.

That afternoon myself and my wife put flyers through approximately half the Residents doors of Friars Park who we felt would be most affected.

We invited them for a Residents meeting on Jubilee Park the next evening and it was well turned out.

Since that day, we have been in regular contact with each other, having regular Residents meetings, attending Parish Council meetings, writing letters to Parish Councillors, District Councillors, and spending hours of time researching Skate Parks and also trying to get people to understand our concerns.

We feel we are not being listened to by our Parish Council, in particular, John Peck and Celia Brooks.

They will not listen to our concerns, and they constantly lie and make excuses to our questions.

John Peck has so many fingers in so many pies it is impossible for us to be heard.

We have also been lied to by Barratt Homes.

None of us knew about this Skate Park when we bought our houses.

The information pack that Barratts gave us, nor the sales office site plan mentioned the Skate Park.

The Residents are also constantly emailing Barratts for their reason behind hiding the Skate Park from buyers, of course we all know the answer to this question, but we want them to admit it, but again we do not get the answer

We have all said we would never have bought houses on this site had we known about the Skate Park.

There is much more we could discuss regarding this matter, but hopefully this gives you a good idea of what we are up against.

We would very much appreciate your views and advise on our predicament.


Regards ####  ######