PAPER D

Purpose : For Decision

Committee :    EXECUTIVE

Date :              30 JULY 2002

Title :              FAIRWAY PARK, THE FAIRWAY, LAKE PARISH, ISLE OF WIGHT

PORTFOLIO HOLDERS - RESOURCES AND EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING

SUMMARY/PURPOSE

The Isle of Wight Council has endeavoured to acquire this property on several occasions both by agreement and at auction but without success. The Council has also successfully defended its planning policy for the area at four separate planning appeals. Lake Parish Council wishes to underwrite this property as a recreation ground. The Isle of Wight Council is being recommended to pursue the legal costs of an acquisition by Lake Parish Council if that Council finds it necessary to proceed by way of compulsory purchase.

BACKGROUND

At its meeting held on 15 February 2001 the Executive received a comprehensive report regarding Fairway Park. Some of the details from that report are reproduced here and a copy of that report can be made available to Members upon request. The Executive resolved to bid at auction up to a price of £25,000 to acquire the property. On the day the property sold for a price of £36,000 to the present owner.

Your officers have been in correspondence with the present owner with a view to settling terms by agreement for the acquisition of the Fairway Park, however to date it has not been possible to settle terms by agreement that officers feel appropriate to be recommended to the Council. More recently the landowner has withdrawn a similar offer to sell the property and is also considering his own action. At the same time another planning application has been submitted.

Fairway Park is a square level site abutting the rear boundaries of residential dwellings in Rose Way, The Fairway and Medeway in Lake. It was formerly a football ground with a stand and clubhouse and was owned by Sandown Football Club. The Club had some financial difficulties and took out a loan against the property in 1987 in order to resolve its problems. The Club lost the property in 1995 and the land has been unused for any purpose ever since and is now overgrown.

Mature and semi-mature trees mark the eastern, western and northern boundaries of Fairway Park and public footpath No 29 abuts its southern boundary. Vehicle access is available off The Fairway and the surrounding area is almost exclusively residential, in the main low density but with a variety of types of development ranging from flats to detached houses. A location plan of Fairway Park is appended indicating an area of some 1.57 hectares.

As indicated above, numerous proposals have been put forward to redevelop the site and four planning appeals have failed to secure development consent with proposals ranging from residential development to woodland cemetery and a tennis club.

The reasons for the refusals of development on the site include loss of open space, loss of potential formal playing fields and inadequate alternative provision in the area. Sport England has supported the Council in its refusals to allow development on the site on the grounds that it contradicted Government and Sport England policies and that there is a locally identified need for recreational facilities. The land is zoned as open space in the deposited draft of the Unitary Development Plan. In reaching his decision at the latest planning appeal the Inspector makes the following point : “In any event from the evidence submitted in this appeal, the Council would appear to believe that compulsory purchase is an option open to them. Thus, not all possibilities would appear to have been exhausted. The probability of the appeal site being used as a public playing field cannot therefore reasonably be ruled out.”

The Council is also reminded that investigations and surveys have been undertaken as to the availability of alternative suitable site for sport recreation and playing space and no suitable alternative proposal has been worked up for recommendations.

OUTCOME OF CONSULTATIONS

Since February last year the Lake Parish Council have been kept informed by officers as to the Council’s actions and the passing correspondence in respect of the Fairway Park both in terms of planning applications and negotiations with the owner. The Parish Council is aware of the condition of the land, the likely cost of reinstating the site, the offers that have been put forward and the request to enter into arbitration with the owner. The Parish Council remains committed to acquiring this site as a priority to provide a public recreation ground for the benefit of residents in the area and the development of sport.

Both the Football Association and Sandown Town Council have also been consulted about this property again and reaffirm support for the acquisition of this land by Lake Parish Council.

PLANNING

The Development Control Manager advises that :

There have been six planning applications dating back to March 1988 when an application for four dwellings on a small part of the site was refused permission. The subsequent appeal was dismissed in September 1988. Nine years later an outline application for 38 dwellings was refused permission and a subsequent appeal was dismissed in July 1998. Just over two years ago an application seeking consent for a woodland cemetery was refused and the subsequent appeal in that case was also dismissed in August 2000. An outline application to develop the site with a tennis club was refused in July 2001; this decision was again tested on appeal and that appeal was dismissed in November 2001. Recently further applications were made for the establishment of a garden centre and a dry ski slope each of which have been refused.

The owner lodged an appeal in respect of both these decisions and has requested a local inquiry, but in the last few days has withdrawn these appeals.

There is now a current outline planning application to develop part of the site for residential purposes by demolishing number 40 The Fairway and constructing an access road which will serve ten building plots adjacent to the western boundary of the site. The annotation on the submitted drawing indicates that the remaining area will be donated to the Local Parish Council if planning permission is granted. The application is due to be considered by the Development Control Committee at the meeting to be held on 16 July 2002; the recommendation is likely to be that the application be refused permission.

In each case the determining issues were considered to be the loss of (public) open space which contributed to the general amenity of the area and the loss of a potential playing field. The applications have generated much opposition, especially from Sport England who strongly support the re-establishment of a playing field on this site. In the adopted Unitary Development Plan the site is allocated as open space.

When giving due regard to the planning history of the site and, in particular, the fact that various Appeal Inspectors have consistently supported the Council's stance against development of the site as opposed to the re-establishment of a playing field, I do not consider there to be a practicable alternative use for the site which would preserve the open space which contributes so significantly to this area bearing in mind there is an identified short fall in the locality.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Further independent valuation advice has been given to Lake Parish Council as to the value of this land.

The cost of the CPO procedure has been considered by the Legal Services Manager and a budget is suggested at £20,000. At this stage it is difficult to be more precise as the scale of objection to the proposed Order is unknown. Lake Parish Council have been apprised of this advice and have asked the Isle of Wight Council to underwrite these potential costs.

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

It is understood that if Lake Parish Council is unsuccessful in negotiating an acquisition by agreement, the Isle of Wight Council would be requested to purchase the site compulsorily on behalf of the Parish Council. This is now possible under Section125 Local Government Act 1972.

As a first step it would be advisable to seek Counsel’s opinion on the case and in particular the evidential requirements. This could be done once a request has been received from the Parish Council, and within the figure for legal costs quoted above.

OPTIONS

1.        That if requested to do so by the Parish Council, the Isle of Wight Council agrees to underwrite the legal costs for the Compulsory Purchase Order procedure, including seeking Counsel’s opinion at an early stage.

2. To decline the request.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

Options 1.

BACKGROUND PAPERS

Executive Committee report 15 February 2001.

Contact Point : Tony Flower, Head of Property Services, ☎ 823263

John Metcalfe, Head of Community Development, ☎ 823825