00:00 [Music]
00:27 Janine, Sue, can I just ask you what your thoughts were when you first heard of
00:31 the plans for Ashton Park?
00:33 I was horrified to think that we were going to get a plastic pitch and a massive car park
00:39 put on top of a perfectly good grass field with big floodlights right
00:42 surrounded by people's homes and the associated traffic that's going to be
00:48 brought in with it. I've no objection to football but we don't need plastic, we
00:52 don't need tall floodlights, it's just the wrong place. We're happy with grass
00:58 pitches but we don't want a plastic pitch because it's not good for the
01:01 environment, it's going to destroy our wildlife, of which we have lots.
01:04 But in winter or even in summer conditions like this the grass pitches are going to be usable are they?
01:09 I'm not sure that the plastic one will be usable if it's raining so much.
01:13 And Sue, you've got concerns about biodiversity I believe?
01:16 I do have concerns about biodiversity, especially in these times of
01:20 catastrophic climate breakdown. Every single carbon capturing, oxygen producing
01:26 organism is vital for all of us and it's not just here at Ashton where people are
01:33 losing the green spaces, it's all over the country which makes it even more
01:37 important that we preserve these areas of biodiversity. I mean you just look
01:43 around and imagine how many birds, insects, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates
01:52 are actually living here. This is a lie doing this.
01:56 So James, your house overlooks Ashton Park doesn't it? You've got a real stake in its future.
02:01 Yes, it's just a stone's throw away and I've lived here since 1972 so I've been
02:06 here nearly 52 years with my wife, my late wife who died recently and my
02:11 family. I brought all my children up here like many other people on this park.
02:16 We brought them up in safety. It's a lovely place to live. It's a beautiful park to live on.
02:21 The plans really are ill-conceived. It's going to change the park
02:27 entirely. The topography of the park is going to have to change
02:32 considerably for the council to accommodate the plans. There's a dome on
02:36 the park. It rises to about 11 feet in the middle. That's behind us here?
02:42 It's behind us now, yes, and it's quite considerable. The plans are to build a
02:46 bund in front of the houses on the western edge. How will your view of
02:50 the park change from where you live? Well we won't be able to see much of it
02:53 because of the bund in front of our windows and our gardens. What we will be
02:57 able to see however are the eight floodlight pilings and the five-meter eye
03:03 fencing. We'll also be able to hear the shouting and the bawling on football
03:07 matches, not just in the football season, but 365 days a year up until 10 or 11
03:14 o'clock at night. They assure us that it's only going to go on till 9 o'clock
03:17 but obviously the lights will be on for a lot longer than that and the cars on
03:21 the new car park, which will be at the side of the 3G peak, will be shining in
03:26 all our windows for time of the morning. Do you agree that something needs to be done with the park?
03:32 I do. I do agree that something needs to be done with the park. It needs new play
03:37 areas for children because these ones are inadequate that we have now. It
03:41 needs the basketball court refurbishing for the kids that they care so
03:47 much about, but they've let rot for years and years, the
03:51 basketball court. They've recently just done up one of the tennis courts and now
03:57 we've got to pay four pounds. Our children have to pay four pounds to go on
04:01 the tennis courts and now they want to build a sports hub on our park and
04:09 totally change the usage of it because it stops being a park and it starts
04:14 being a vanity sports centre for Preston City Council and that's all it is.
04:23 Anne, Stephanie, I believe you both live within a stone's throw of Ashton Park.
04:30 What do you make of the plans for it? I'm not very happy at all really. It was all
04:34 a complete surprise to us. We've not been consulted. You've been consulted
04:41 now though, haven't you? The council's launched a consultation through until the end of August?
04:44 Yes, they have. There is limited information coming back with regards to
04:49 our questions when we've tried to give our suggestions. It's a case of
04:56 they want us to complete questionnaires at the moment, but the questionnaires are
04:59 quite biased in my opinion. The questionnaire is all based around sports
05:04 and what do you book and why do you book it and it's not really a questionnaire
05:09 for a park. It's more for a football club or a sports centre. Isn't sport though a
05:15 key feature of a park like this or shouldn't it be? Yes and we do have sport
05:19 on here. We have football pitches at the seasonal time and just all grass, natural
05:29 grass. We've got tennis courts and basketball courts. We're in quite close proximity to
05:34 one of the children's play areas here, aren't we? Yes, we are and this is one of my big
05:39 worries is that the children's play area is there and on this path here it's a shame
05:43 it's a nasty day because normally we've got kids whizzing up and down and the
05:47 parents are sat having a lovely chat, but now where we're stood is going to be a
05:51 car park. So the children's play area is within yards of the car park. It's just
05:56 madness. It's an accident waiting to happen. It is, basically. They used to go
06:01 playing on there and then they'd start running and playing on the park.
06:05 They're not going to be able to now. They're going to be cut off from the park.
06:09 We're going to get a big football hub there with changing rooms and offices
06:13 and a cafe, but then we've got the old pavilion just there. Why are they not
06:17 using that footprint instead of another load of grass being used up? Yes. It is a
06:23 very old pavilion though, that building, isn't it? It needs to come down.
06:27 But why not put the new hub on that footprint and save a little bit more
06:31 grass? What would be your message to Preston City Council, anyone listening? I
06:35 think they should talk to us. Listen. Sit down. Let's have a rational
06:41 discussion about this. We want to have a debate. We want to have a say. What
06:46 happens? Where things go? We've got some really good ideas. We've tried to
06:51 express them, haven't we? More sport, not just football. We could have a skate park. We
06:56 could have much better facilities for children, better drainage, more seats for
07:02 the older people. Yes. There's a lot that could be done to this park that would
07:07 benefit the whole community, not just the minority really.
07:12 [Music]
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