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Stan Hetherington is calling for more people in Wokingham to organise events on Elms Field once it has been redeveloped
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Community space plan for Elms Field

By Laura Herbert
November 12, 2012

A community champion is calling for more people in Wokingham to organise events on Elms Field once it has been redeveloped.

As part of the town’s £100 million regeneration plans, Elms Field will include a foodstore – featuring a coffee shop, restaurant, bakery and pharmacy – as well as a hotel, shops and restaurants/cafe units.

As well as housing there will also be an open space designed specifically for community events.

Wokingham Borough Council’s executive met last week to formally dispose of the field so work can begin.

Despite strong objection against the disposal of the land, Wokingham Festival organiser Stan Hetherington believes the move will be good news for community events.

Mr Hetherington said: “We will have a lovely open space and it will be available for all types of performances and arts and crafts.

“It is going to have the facilities to make it easy to organise event and they will now have a real sense of inclusion.”

He added: “The events we have in the town tend to be restricted to a small part of Elms Field and when Wokingham Lions holds the May Fayre it is spread out but it involves extra manpower.

“Having the field all in one location will provide the opportunity to hold bigger events and it will make manning and running them much easier.

“I hope other community groups will come forward and run events of their own. It would be wonderful for choirs to hold a performance in that field.

“I would love Wokingham to have an open-air theatre, I think it’s magical. I would also like to expand the open-air cinema and get schools involved.”

Objectors also raised concerns about the ownership of Elms Field once it is disposed but the executive was expected to agree to lease the open space to Wokingham Town Council once the project is finished.

Bernie Pich, the council’s head of regeneration, said: “What we see first of all is a much-improved park as opposed to a field.

“There will be a large events space and we are looking at ways to improve the events, the way they are managed and the number of them.

“We see the whole thing becoming more active and usable.”

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Most recent user comments 9 of 9

Tonk, I wouldn't entirely discount the possibility of bribes going to private individuals, either.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
14/11/2012 at 10:21

The fundamental problem in Wokingham, as I see it, is that our council see publically owned, open green spaces as a liability due to up-keep costs etc but they see developed land as an asset, due to income from rates and rip off tax etc and the end of having to maintain that space.

In many parts of our globe, a bribe to get something approved is seen as the normal way to do business, in the UK, we have just called it a section 106 payment.

Tonk, Wokingham
13/11/2012 at 19:28

What is stopping people from organising events on it now? Elms is a great space with paths leading to the tarmac courts for fowl weather or sporting events leading off a car park even the most nervous of drivers are not scared to use.

The reality is modern life has got in the way of big society. Both work, big mortgage, Internet community cheaper and. The few people who make the time top do events seem to be the ones in the circles that personally benefit from more development. So buying goodwill then.

When their is nothing left to develop how will we survive? Without the section 106 contributions that fund our infrastructure that always involves making a new one and selling the old for accommodation (thus not maintenance) our infrastructure will deteriorate and if the kind developers move away we will have no events organisers.

This secret £100m secret (you try and find out what we are paying for what) solution to the global debt problem is, as the National Audit Office put it "is being funded by the Council at a time of economic uncertainty. There is a risk that failure to deliver the anticipated returns will have an impact on your financial resilience"

The whole thing relies on our new neighbours taking on massive mortgages on small garden less town houses and both us and them spending as much money as we can in a town centre where rents and rates will leave the retailers at a disadvantage.

Bad for community and compounding the economic problem. A bottle of whisky to cure the hangover.

My only defence of our Tory council developing in the area is that is is the national policy, so if you moved into a 'Historic Market Town' for near rural town feel, it has been selected for urbanisation.

What do you do if you see a spaceman? Sell it man!

Kaz4Wokingham, Wokingham
12/11/2012 at 23:09

As long as they don't cut down my da*n tree!!

WokinghamLAD, woko
12/11/2012 at 19:59

Why has Elms Field not been designated a town green? It is probably too late now. With the growing number of empty shops in the town centre and the surrounding countryside all scheduled to be turned into housing estates it is vital that this green space is not reduced in size.

There are plenty of run down areas in the town centre, like Broad Street Walk tha would benefit from some regeneration.

The All Saints end of Peach Street is in huge danger of turning into a desert of empty shops (currently hidden behind short term uses) Any development in Elms field will act as a further magnet drawing shoppers away from the few remaining viable shops. The proposed move of the main town centre doctors' surgery to this end of town should be causing emphasis on improving this end of Peach Street.

PoneRana, Wokingham
12/11/2012 at 13:54

Interestingly it is still not clear to me who will own the field post regeneration. Will it be owned by some faceless properties services company who can shut access to the area whenever they feel like it, as has happened with many regenerations in London?

HatsOfDoom
12/11/2012 at 11:55

I understand bull-baiting was very popular in the town in the 1600's. This involved tying a bull up, blowing pepper up his nose to wind him up and then letting dogs attack him... outdoor community entertainment the good old fashioned way, Wokingham style