Hulme Calls For Changes To Churchill Fields Process

Cllr Ken Hulme

Cllr Ken Hulme has called on Oldham Council to do more to bring local groups and associations together on the issue of Churchill Fields.

The independent member of Saddleworth Parish Council said councillors co-ordinating the consultation process should “take immediate steps to meet the grievances of Saddleworth Runners and other local groups who feel they have been badly treated.”

An estimated 300 people attended a public meeting in Uppermill on Tuesday night, as councillors presented a possible future plan for the site. It would involve sorting out the long-standing drainage problems to provide four full-size football and rugby pitches, along with a junior pitch and training area.

However, the existing running track would be removed, and replaced with a grass one during the summer months only. The Saddleworth Runners club opposes that, and has complained it has been shut out of the process up to now.

Cllr Hulme commented in a statement: “We can’t afford to have a situation where local runners and footballers are pitted against each other. I can’t see any funding body wanting to step in and give out grants to a project mired in controversy and dispute.”

He added: “Saddleworth Runners, and other groups like the Greenfield and Grasscroft Residents Association, have every right to feel angry about the shabby way the council has treated them. They deserve an immediate and unequivocal apology from Oldham Council for the way the council has failed to involve or properly consult them.”

The rugby pitch in the middle of the existing track at Churchill Fields.

Councillors have insisted that no final proposals have been put together yet, and say they will take on board feedback from Tuesday’s meeting, including from consultation forms which were handed out to people who attended.

The Runners also indicated they wanted to put any disagreements about the process behind them, and work with the council from now on.

Cllr John McCann told the meeting that it was time for people to “get real” about the future of the fields. He said: “The running track is 40 years old. It’s gone, knackered, kaput. Some people haven’t paid booking fees for years for use of this track. It may not be popular but it’s time that was said.”

Cllr Barbara Beeley, who has played a leading role in the process so far, warned that the fields faced a bleak future if the council didn’t act now: “If we don’t take this chance, in five years Churchill could be unusable for anything. It’ll be a wet wasteland.”

The meeting heard that the Oldham Council-funded Saddleworth and Lees District Partnership was putting up £50,000, with a further £95,000 available from so-called Section 106 money, which is cash paid by developers to the council for the benefit of the local community. Councillors hope the Football Foundation and Rugby Football League could match that through grants, leaving a potential pot of at least £300,000 to spend on the improvements.

You can read a full report of Tuesday’s meeting from Saddleworth News here. More articles about Churchill Fields can be read here.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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