Almost half of Spalding playing field could be used for housing

A plan to use almost half of a public playing field for a housing development is facing strong opposition.

Welland Homes Ltd – South Holland District Council’s new housebuilding company – wants to put 24 homes on Severn Road Playing Field in Spalding.
The move, which would use 42 per cent of the field, has received objections from Sport England, Spalding and District Civic Society and some neighbouring residents. The main sticking point is the loss of public recreation land.

However, support documentation to the planning application – which includes provision of an improved play area – points to a 2012 report which states that there is a surplus of amenity green space in St Paul’s ward.
It adds: “The proposal will result in the provision of housing units set against the inability of the local planning authority to realise a five-year housing land supply.”

The civic society argues that the proposal is contrary to all three national and local policies on the redevelopment of public recreational space – and Spalding is already 44 per cent short of that land.

Spokesman John Charlesworth has underlined that the civic society has nothing against the provision of housing, particularly social housing.
“But house construction must not be at the expense of depleting further Spalding’s already inadequate amount of public recreational space,” he said. “It is the derelict brownfield sites that should be being targeted for that housing and thus brought back to life, not children’s playing fields.”

Jewson’s former site and the ex-Welland Hospital plot have been suggested as more appropriate locations.