TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington are being recommended to sell off former school playing fields which have been plagued by gypsy and traveller incursions in recent years.
The land was formerly the playing fields of the St Oliver Plunkett RC Primary School, in Admirals Road, Birchwood, which closed in 2002.
It has been vacant for more than 10 years with re-development constrained because it is in three ownerships – the borough council, the Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Trustees and the Homes and Communication Agency.
In a report to be presented to the council’s executive board by Cllr Russ Bowden (pictured), lead member for corporate finance, it is explained that selling the playing fields will regenerate an area of unused land that has suffered in recent years from gypsy and traveller visits and fly tipping.
The council’s section of the land can only be accessed through the two other sections – and the Archdiocesan Trustees and the Homes and Community Agency have indicated that they propose to sell their land for housing whether the council join in or not.
Receipts will be split three ways and Cllr Bowden says this will offer excellent value for the council as its land is effectively landlocked, with limited value without the benefit of the joint disposal.
The deal will also demonstrate that the council is working in partnership with other public sector bodies.
Cllr Russ Bowden
Council to sell land plagued by gypsy incursions
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While I can understand that having a large piece of land lying dormant for 10 years and that selling it off could make the council some money I don’t really recall many news stories on here or elsewhere or even comments on various social media sites over the years re these so called invasions of travellers/gypsies on there.
Does anyone happen to know just how many times this land has been ‘invaded’ ?
It’s a very big plot of land though and possibly worth quite a bit to a developer as it could fit an awful lot of new build houses/flats on and is already surrounded by housing developments so more would undoubtedly be allowed. It’s currently split equally between the 3 landowners listed I believe.