A RESIDENT has written a history of the planning controversy surrounding the playing fields at Sling Lane.
Catherine Hall has spent the last three months putting the 24-page document together and is now looking to have it archived.
The 64-year-old of Clerkenwell Crescent said the report ‘needed to be written’ and described it as a living document with more updates expected in the near future.
The document catalogues events which date back longer than a decade with Malvern Hills District Council’s purchase of the land from Malvern College in 1999 noted as the first major moment.
Further significant developments include the council’s formal notice of its intent to dispose in 2005, the formation of the Heart Of Malvern Residents Association and the planning application from Newtown Sports Junior Football Club for the pavilion and car park.
Currently, the club is waiting to sign a long-term lease for the playing fields but the deal is being held-up by legal issues between the council and Network Rail, which owns neighbouring land connected to the railway line which passes by the plot.
Mrs Hall said the biggest turning point of the entire saga occurred in 2009 when Worcestershire Highways deemed it safe for cars to pass underneath the railway tunnel at the end of Sling Lane to access the site.
She added it was a tragedy control of the land was set to move away from a body which was accountable to the public.
“I wrote this history because it needed to be written. I am just somebody who lives in a house on a street in Malvern and never thought about what was happening with our local authority.
“I was very surprised and this is also a good commentary on the way councils conduct themselves.
“Sling Lane is a big deal locally, its always been used for recreation purposes and that’s what the fields are needed for.
“The railway tunnel was always the stumbling block for its future and cars should never have been allowed to go through, its very dangerous for pedestrians.”
