Wrexham Council Selling off of School Land

I have not been blogging this week as I have been a little side tracked with an issue close to my heart! Wrexham Council want to sell off the Tennis Courts with an additional secion of land at Darland High School in order to build more luxury homes. In 2009 a survey identified that Rossett was short of recreational land and in the Lavister end of the village where the development will take place there is nowhere for the children to play. The Council are selling off the land in an attempt to pay off debts they have accrued through their mistakes. The rates from these luxury houses will go directly into Wrexham Councils coffers and nothing will be spent on the village of Rossett.

Rossett is a beautiful village, bordering on the country but Wrexham council are intent on building it up beyond recognition without developing the village infrastructure to deal with the extra inhabitants.

Chester Road is already a major problem! The A483 bypass was built to relieve our villages but because of the design Rossett still receives an influx of commuters trying to beat the bottle neck at the end of the by pass.

Darland Lane is already under consultation because of the volume and speed of traffic travelling along there and Gamford Lane.

We only have one play area in the village and that is 25 minutes walk away from my home and along the Chester Road which is too busy and at some points the footpaths are too narrow.

We are not blessed with the facilities that other villages in the area are. We don't have a library, our health centre is a tin sheet building with inadequate parking facilities, our GP's surgery is small and unable to cope with the level of inhabitants it has now.

The land at Darland School was donated to the school for recreational purposes. If the plans do go ahead then they have no plans to replace the tennis courts within the next 10 years. This means that at a time when the government is trying to promote sports for the sake of the nations health, recreational space is being taken away from us. Not only is the area used during school hours, it is used by local residents out of hours.

The selling off of school property has been a worrying trend which has gone on for the last 20 years. Indeed, Darland School lost its cricket pitches to a sale of land which brought about the building of 20 luxury homes. The cricket pitches have not been replaced!

I have set up a petition to fight these plans and fight them I will. I am contacting the Fields in Trust and Prince William who is spearheading a development of 2012 playing fields to celebrate his grandmother HM Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne.

I am not giving up without a fight!