Education

Bigshotte Park Pavilion in Holmbury Avenue, Crowthorne, will become a nursery catering for up to 15 children
advertisement

Nursery to replace Bigshotte Park pavilion

By Jon Nurse
June 12, 2012

A nursery will replace an unused sports pavilion in a site blighted by anti-social behaviour.

Bigshotte Park Pavilion in Holmbury Avenue, Crowthorne, will become a nursery catering for up to 15 children.

Objectors cited a covenant that pledges the park for recreational use and questioned whether there was enough parking on site.

However, Wokingham Borough Council’s planning committee approved plans at a meeting at the council’s civic offices in Shute End last Wednesday.

Councillor Gerry Brown of Wokingham Without Parish Council said: “I object because Bigshotte Park is for sports and recreational use, not commercial use. The location does not lend itself to that kind of activity. The parish council is concerned with traffic volume, parking and safety issues with access to the pavilion.”

Crowthorne resident Colin Philpott, who hit the headlines in 2009 when he stabbed a teenager with a letter opener after the youth assaulted his step-son and vandalised his car, also spoke at the meeting against the change.

He said: “I feel it is unfair for the area to be subjected to this extra traffic and noise.

“Residents have long campaigned for the building to be demolished because it’s a magnet for underage drinking and anti-social behaviour. The park was designated in a covenant to be for recreational use and this seems to have been ignored.”

Applicant Kelly Hayter said: “There is a need for more children’s facilities in the area and child care places will soon be hard to come by. The nursery would provide high quality care and improve problems of anti-social behaviour in the area.”

Cllr Angus Ross, ward member for Wokingham Without, said: “There are car parking inadequacies and she makes an irrelevant link with ant-social behaviour. It simply doesn’t happen between the hours of 8am and 6pm.”

The pavilion has been unused since 2009, when the council closed it to save maintenance costs.

| Submit Comments | View Comments (3)

« Previous Story | Next Story »

Most recent user comments 3 of 3

What a great use for an old unused building .... i wish them luck!

Tom Edwards, Bracknell
14/06/2012 at 09:35

I agree with Winstanley. We don't want our local paper descending to the standards of some of the national press.

PoneRana, Wokingham
13/06/2012 at 00:02

"Crowthorne resident Colin Philpott, who hit the headlines in 2009 when he stabbed a teenager with a letter opener after the youth assaulted his step-son and vandalised his car, also spoke at the meeting against the change."

Sorry BFS but you'll have to enlighten me as to why the 2009 incident has any bearing on Mr Philpott objecting to these plans in 2012, or the reporting in general of this case.

Pure titilation and irrelevance. You know there is an enquiry currently ongoing about media ethics. You might have heard of it, conducted by a chap called Leveson.....