Campaign groups in Eastleigh fighting to save green spaces from development will join forces on Saturday to highlight the fast approaching October deadline for public consultation on both Eastleigh Borough Council’s Local Plan and the proposed extension of Sainsbury’s supermarket onto the town’s recreation ground.
‘Save Stoneham Park’ protestors, along with objectors from ‘Rescue the Rec,’ will gather at the town’s iconic bandstand at 11.30 am on September 22 to listen to speakers, before tying ribbons around 50 trees which they say will have to be felled to make way for the new megastore.
“We are united in our opposition to the wholesale destruction of our green open spaces - land we regard as our heritage and which we currently enjoy,” explained a spokesperson for the combined action group, who said that more green space will be destroyed at Stoneham and elsewhere in the Borough under the Local Plan.”
The groups say the council should build on vacant brownfield sites within the borough rather than building on historic parkland, and that green spaces are needed for leisure, to protect natural habitat and to encourage visitors to spend time in the Borough.
The planning hearing into the Sainsbury’s supermarket development will take place Tuesday, October 2, while the closing date for the public consultation on Eastleigh’s Local Plan is Friday, October 12.
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