Bitterne Park Primary School says that the majority of people who attended its public meeting on December 3, and who took part in its non-binding ballot on the evening, backed the school’s original plan for its use of part of Riverside Park.
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The school set up a non-binding ballot on the evening, encouraging those attending to vote on an array of options for future access to both field and footpath.
Although it has yet to make a decision on which option it wants to try to get through the planning process, the school has now revealed that the majority who voted backed its original plan to close the path permanently and divert it around the field.
Exclusive access
This would effectively give the school exclusive access to this part of Riverside Park, with groups having out-of-hours access through a booking process.
As previously reported, the school also put forward a ‘compromise option’ at the meeting following talks with community groups, which would give it exclusive use of the area only during the school day, and with the existing path closed only during that time – or only when the field was actually in use under another variation.
The result from the vote was as follows (school’s own words/emphasis):
Out of 131 ballots:
- 14 (11%) voted not to support the plan to allow the school to have access to the field by re-routing the footpath during the school day, and believe the footpath should remain open at all times.
- 117 (89%) voted to support the plan to allow the school to have access to the field. Within this option a further 3 options were then asked to be considered regarding the path.
- The majority: 84 out of 131 (64%) voted in favour of closing the existing path, diverting it around the green space and for the green space to be closed outside of school hours, with a community group being established to manage bookings.
Following the results of the ballot, chair of governors Howard Whitehead said that a decision on which route to pursue hadn’t yet been made.
'Not a snap decision'
“This is not a snap decision. We need to ensure we discuss all the options and take into account everyone’s views. These results though show a large proportion of people want to see the space secure, which we will take into consideration,” he said.
Doug Perry from the Friends of Riverside Park (FORP) said that he had predicted a high vote for the original plan, to close the footpath, because he thought that the majority of people at the meeting were school parents.
He also said there was considerable support to retain the path as a right of way.
FORP says it has a further meeting with the school arranged for January. Bitterne Park Primary says its next step is to “digest feedback” and submit a planning application “in early 2015”.