Lease with peppercorn rent best safeguard for Whittlesey town park

Councillors are looking to safeguard the long-term future of a town recreation ground to prevent it from being sold-off for housing.

Whittlesey Town Council discussed the options for the Station Road rec at its meeting on Thursday.

Councillors are calling on the site’s owners, Fenland District Council, to give the rec to the town council on a long-term lease.

The council heard that the future of the recreation ground as an open space for the town could be in jeopardy with the planned shake-up of local government, which will see Fenland District Council abolished.

When that happens, the district council’s assets will go under the control of any new authority, and that could mean the recreation land could be sold for development.

The site has already been identified as “surplus” and suitable for disposal by the district council itself in a report to Fenland’s cabinet in December, as part of the ways to combat budget pressures.

Cllr Dr Haq Nawaz said he was concerned about the future of the Station Road rec and said he had been in contact with Fenland’s leader, fellow Whittlesey Cllr Chris Boden, about the possibility of the town council being granted a long-term lease at a peppercorn rent, or even the possibility of the town buying the site.

Cllr Dee Laws said work was currently underway to have tree preservation orders put on some of the trees in the park which could help towards preserving it as an open space.

However, Cllr Boden said the district council is not always keen to put tree preservation orders on trees on land it owns and added they do have to be justified and cannot just be applied to any tree.

He also said that the site was considered an ideal location for development making it a valuable piece of land, which would make it unaffordable for the town council to buy.

However, he said the best way to protect the park was for the town council to be granted a long-term lease.

Cllr Boden said that with a lease in place, the site would be retained as a public open space, as there would be nothing that could be done until the lease expired.

He said the peppercorn rent could be as little as £1 a year, and the lease could run for as many as 250 years.

Cllr Boden said: “A long-term lease will ensure that piece of land won’t be built on.”

Councillors voted to agree to push Fenland District Council to agree to a long-term lease for the site – with Cllr Boden abstaining, saying: “I can’t really vote as it will be me that is being pushed to agree the lease.”