Preston park plans dropped

Controversial plans to build new football facilities on a Preston park have been kicked into touch by councillors as the city grapples with the rising costs of a raft of government-funded ‘levelling up’ schemes.

The revamp of Ashton Park – which would have seen an all-weather 3G pitch, six grass pitches and a two-storey sports pavilion installed on the Pedders Lane green space – had generated fierce opposition amongst some locals.

Nevertheless, Preston City Council had remained committed to the development, whose £9.7m price tag made it the most expensive element of the £20m package of projects for which the authority had succeeded in securing cash from the Levelling Up Fund in January last year.

However, all that changed on Tuesday evening when a crunch meeting of the ruling Labour group was presented with a report detailing the financial challenge of delivering several of those other schemes.

The confidential document – seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) – described projects including a planned upgrade to Moor Park and the creation of new segregated cycle paths across the city as being “unaffordable as currently designed”. The paper revealed those plans – and improvements to Waverley Park – were currently being “value engineered” in an attempt to keep them within budget.

While work on the highest-profile of Preston’s Levelling Up Fund projects – the replacement of the crumbling Old Tram Bridge between Avenham Park and Penwortham – is already under way, the LDRS that understands other schemes in the pot were subject to being scaled back or even dropped altogether as a result of the spiralling costs.

Against that backdrop, Labour members were given a choice about whether to proceed with the blueprint for Ashton Park or remove it from the list of levelling up developments and plough the money saved into the over-budget parts of the programme. A majority voted to boot out the divisive vision for the park site.

That decision will have to be confirmed in a vote of the full council next month and, crucially, is also subject to approval from the new government.

One of the arguments previously advanced by Labour cabinet members against attempting to redesign the Ashton Park proposal – amid a growing clamour to do so, including a 2,200-signature petition – was the concern that it could jeopardise the entire Levelling Up funding package.

Deputy council leader Martyn Rawlinson appealed to councillors of all political colours not to “risk all that money”, during the meeting at which the plans were approved in February.    He said the authority could not be certain of what the government would do unless or until the formal process of amending the Levelling Up Fund bid was triggered.

It is that mechanism – known as a “project adjustment request” – that the town hall will now have to enact with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Meanwhile, more modest plans for Ashton Park will now be pursued, if alternative sources of funding can be found.

City council leader Matthew Brown told the LDRS that scrapping the project had been a “difficult decision”, but that it would enable the redistribution of funds to the other levelling up projects “that are of substantial benefit to the people of Preston”.

“It is important that we don’t overspend, but work within the constraints we have, to deliver the best possible results for our residents,” he said.

“We have responded to local concerns and understand the strong feelings about the [Ashton Park] development. Members in the ruling Labour group have had differing views on the project and we have been working to tight government deadlines with a collective desire to improve our city, despite those differences.

“We remain committed to enhancing football and sporting facilities across Preston, but it is right, as a council, we think again in terms of Ashton Park.”

Out of the 641 people who responded to the public consultation into the plans last year, around 80 percent were against much of the proposed development, while 1,200 people became members of a specially-formed community group which battled to force a rethink.

The contentious project has proved politically costly for Labour in the city, with the party losing two of the three seats that make up the Lea and Larches ward – which borders Ashton Park – in the space of two months.

At the local elections in May, former Lancashire County Council leader Jennifer Mein leader was ousted – by just 13 votes – by the Liberal Democrats who had campaigned on a compromise option for the park of ditching the 3G pitch and building a smaller pavilion.

Labour were also challenged by an independent candidate and founding member of the Fight for Ashton Park group, Ann Cowell, who won more than 300 votes and so was likely pivotal in the final result.

The resignation of Labour veteran David Borrow then prompted a by-election in the ward,  held on the day of the general election.  That contest brought another Lib Dem victory and saw an increase in the vote tally for Mrs. Cowell, who again stood for election.

Speaking to the LDRS immediately after the Labour group meeting, Cllr Brown said he felt “the right balance” had now been found with the decision to drop the Ashton Park scheme.

“It’s also good that we’re not arrogant and don’t impose things on communities that don’t want them,” he said.

Cllr Brown added that it was time to “move on” from the kind of competitive bidding exercises for additional local authority cash – like the Levelling Up Fund – favoured by the Conservatives and explore “the opportunities we will get with a new Labour government”.

WHAT NOW FOR ASHTON PARK?

Had the Ashton Park redevelopment gone ahead, almost 15 percent of its surface area would have been lost to the 3G pitch, sports hub building and new car park – a key factor in local opposition to the plans.

However, hostility to what the city council was proposing for the space was far from universal – and the scheme was championed by local football teams which said they were in desperate need of more facilities on which to play and train.

The options document discussed by Labour members on Tuesday floats the idea of developing a smaller number of smaller-sized grass pitches for junior league clubs – although it states that the preference would be to create adult playing surfaces, of which there was a particular “shortage” in Preston.

Financial contributions from housing developers to fund local infrastructure improvements were already earmarked to go towards the original Ashton Park  scheme – but it is not certain whether any slimmed-down plans would still be eligible for that cash and members were told legal advice would be required on the subject.   In any case, the amount available would fall far short of the funding needed for the originally-envisaged six grass pitches.

The agenda paper states that council would seek to “explore options for the future of…football provision with a range of partners, stakeholders and funders” – including the University of Central Lancashire, leisure centre operator GLL, Preston North End and the Football Foundation, from which financial support was being sought for the now scrapped Ashton Park project.

PROJECTS PROTECTED

If the government approves the removal of the Ashton Park plans from Preston’s overall Levelling Up Fund programme, the other schemes within it will be spared the paring back – or complete abandonment – which might otherwise have been the fate of some of them in the face of ballooning, often inflation-driven, bills.

The ‘new’ Old Tram Bridge was not facing that jeopardy, as work on the £6.8m project has already begun.  However, the availability of redirected Ashton Park money should ease any emerging financial pressure within the complex two-year project, which Chris Wilding, Lancashire County Council’s bridges and structures design manager, said in May was “slightly over” budget at that point.

The other elements of Preston’s Levelling Up Fund package could now see “additional investment” which would allow them to revert to their “original design ethos”, according to the options paper presented to Labour group members.

Those schemes are:

Moor Park

The final phase of the regeneration of the 40-hectare, Grade II-listed Victorian park – the oldest and largest of Preston’s public parks.  The work will include restoring the historic Serpentine Lake and reinstating features including bridges and railings.   Accessibility and entrances to the park will be improved, along with its play areas and public toilets.  The events stage and park furniture will be upgraded and new horticultural features added.

Waverley Park

New sporting facilities are planned, including an upgraded multi-use games area, a new play area, skate park, bicycle ‘pump- track’ and football pavilion.  New pathways will be created and existing paths widened and resurfaced, while new wildflower meadows and trees will be planted and visitor and community facilities improved.

Grange Park 

Accessibility and lighting improvements to the park’s Heritage and Interpretation Centre to support its use by the community and to improve the visitor experience and night-time safety.

Friargate South and Cheapside revamp 

Improvements to the public realm designed to mirror those recently completed on Friargate North and to create an upgraded connection between the university quarter and the city centre.

Queen Street and Avenham Lane

The installation of a new two-way segregated cycle track to bridge a key gap in the city’s east-west cycling corridor from the A6 towards Preston station. It will also enhance links to the Preston Guild Wheel active travel route.