Football scheme will not benefit most of us

Letters Page of Evening Echo, 3 Jan 2007

WHILE it may seem a good idea to add to the already generous supply of football and other sports pitches in the Wickford area (including Barleylands, where a further increase is mooted), I believe the cost to our community of Wickford Football Club's proposals is wholly unacceptable.
  The proposal for new sports facilities in Shotgate (Echo, December 21) comes at the price of agreeing to yet more housing in Wickford - this time on the
one remaining "green lung" location in the Southend Road area.
  It is interesting to note plans for the housing development are very detailed, while the sports facility remains no more than a line around an area of land.
  Once again, a developer has spotted an opportunity to make a profit and assumes he will get consent by promising something for the community in return.
  He will not be around to suffer the stress his development imposes on the already stretched and stressed infrastructure in our town.
  As is often the case, the interests of the rest of the community will suffer, so a small group can benefit.
  Just what is the community likely to get in return for yet more development?
  Does the Wickford Town Football Club not already have access to enough pitches to satisfy its membership? The answer is probably that it does.
  Who says these sports facilities are actually needed? The developer certainly, but who else? My guess is anybody in Wickford who wants to participate in sport is already able to do so, using existing facilities.
  If more really are needed, why not simply use the land available at Shotgate, or existing parks and apply for a Sport England grant and other funding?
  If a sports facility is created - on the back of a housing development, or otherwise - who will maintain it?
  Will it be the council tax payers of Wickford? More likely, it will be the new Shotgate Parish Council.
  There are many better things on which to spend our money on.
  This proposal might seem a good idea to a housing developer and a few football fanatics, but it's simply another potential disaster for the people of Wickford as a whole.

MICHAEL HILL
Bridge Road
Wickford