Hulme Responds To Churchill Fields Report

Churchill Fields

Parish councillor Ken Hulme has hit back at Oldham Council over the Churchill Fields consultation process.

He said the council’s insistence that it didn’t know the Saddleworth Runners club used the site’s under-threat running track “beggars belief.”

Although a council working group has been looking at the issue for a year, the athletics club said it didn’t hear anything about plans to get rid of the track until last month.

Cllr Hulme made a formal complaint to the council suggesting that it had failed in its legal “duty to involve” all local groups in discussions on the matter. That was dismissed by borough solicitor Paul Entwistle, who cleared the council of doing anything wrong.

The proposal to remove the track has been presented by councillors as part of planned improvement works to sort out long-standing drainage issues at Churchill Fields. There would be four pitches for football and rugby, along with a smaller pitch and a separate training area. A grass running track would be marked out in the summer months instead, something athletes say isn’t an adequate replacement.

The council is putting up £150,000 for the project, and hopes to attract a similar amount from football and rugby league bodies. Councillors said the athletics club had not been invited to meetings with other local sporting and other groups, because it hadn’t paid to use the track in the past three years.

In his report, Mr Entwistle said the council hadn’t broken the law: “The council consulted all known existing users of the site but Saddleworth Runners did not appear amongst such users as their usage of the site is not through any formal booking arrangements.”

He continued: “I am satisfied that statutory and constitutional requirements to consult and inform had been met but since the interest of Saddleworth Runners in this matter has been drawn to the attention of the council, the club is being provided with information about the matter and is invited to make representations.”

Cllr Ken Hulme

However, in a written response to Mr Entwistle, Cllr Hulme pointed to the minutes of two meetings of the Churchill Fields working group held last autumn. He said the minutes show that, “senior council officers in the areas of Sports Development and Integrated Youth Work were both heavily involved from the start.”

He continued: “I’m afraid it really beggars belief that senior council officers involved in both or either of these areas did not know that Saddleworth Runners were long time users of the running track at Churchill Fields. You seem to be implying a level of ignorance by senior council officers in the field of sports development and integrated youth work which defies credibility.”

He added: “I understand that during the period these minutes cover, council officers in one or both of these areas met with leading members of Saddleworth Runners to discuss a continuing youth project that takes place during the summer months on the running track.”

Cllr Hulme went on: “Being told that the council didn’t know that Saddleworth Runners used the track while at the same time council officers are meeting with leading members of Saddleworth Runners to talk about a youth project on the track at Churchill Fields has generated a lot of anger.”

Saddleworth Runners have said they would like to put the disagreement about their lack of involvement so far behind them, and work with the council from now on.

Councillors involved in the process have stressed that they will take on board feedback received at the recent public meeting held in Uppermill, as well as suggestions made in consultation forms filled out by people who were there. They’ve also indicated that a new running track and changing rooms could feature as part of a ‘phase two’ of improvements at Churchill Fields, at some unspecified date in the future.

You can read more articles about Churchill Fields by clicking here.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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