Many of you will have heard that Wandsworth Council has confirmed that it will NOT be progressing its plans to plans to build a commercial football complex on the Triangle area of Tooting Common . Our  Tooting Common Thousand (Plus) petition, which gathered over 1,100 signatories and hundreds of comments (see them here) - appears to have had its effect. Thank you so much to all who became involved.

The plan to open up Woodfield Recreation Ground as part of the Common will go ahead but not as compensation for land swallowed up by five a side football pitches. Instead the playground and one o’ clock club will be fully refurbished and the existing floodlit football pitch will become two five a side pitches. Wandsworth has confirmed that it will not develop beyond the existing footprint - great news!

We now need to decide whether we should keep this site going in any form - should Precious become a Friends of Tooting Common? Should we still try and apply for Village Green status?

Do let us know what you think.

Precious hasn’t posted a blog for a while because, as far as we know, Wandsworth has taken very little action with regard to the pitches. Our petition, which attracted nearly 1200 signatories in a very short period of time was presented to Wandsworth Council at a recent scrutiny committee meeting but appears to have been given only a cursory glance. However, we gather that an advertisement seeking expressions of interest is due to be published soon and the pitch development remains firmly on Wandsworth’s agenda. So please come along to the Tooting MAC APM and give your views.

Tooting Commons Management Advisory Committee (MAC) 2008 Annual Public Meeting (APM), Monday 23rd June 2008Tooting Commons MAC is a group which monitors how Tooting Commons are run, and is made up of local people and representatives from local organisations and sports clubs.The MAC meets regularly to help achieve a balance between facilities for formal and informal recreational use on the commons, to monitor the protection and development of plant and animal life, to retain and enhance the natural character of the commons and to promote public interest and participation in the protection and appreciation of the commons.Members of the MAC and council officers will be presenting reports on the following topics:- Crime 
- The Triangle Field development plans
- Parking
- Ecology/Wildlife
- Others to be confirmedAll members of the public are very welcome to attend the meeting. There will be opportunities for questions from the floor.Attendees at the APM will include officers & other outgoing members of the MAC, councillors & council officers from Wandsworth, and any others interested in the management and welfare of the commons.  The members of the MAC for the coming year will be elected at the meeting.

Location: St Anselm’s School, Louisville Road, Tooting Bec SW17 8BS (nearest tube Tooting Bec, on the Northern Line)
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=528126&y=172354&z=0&sv=SW17+8BS&st=2&pc=SW17+8BS&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf  

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23493118-details/Anne+Marie-Duff+supports+fight+against+artificial+pitches+on+Tooting+Common/article.do  

Anne-Marie Duff supports fight against artificial pitches on Tooting Common

Katharine Barney, Evening Standard
10.06.08  Residents are campaigning to stop artificial pitches being built on Tooting Common. Wandsworth council plans to earn £50,000 a year by leasing out part of Tooting Triangle to developers who want to build sports facilities there. It says the area, including a playground, needs refurbishment, which would be paid for by the developers. It also promises to add nearby Woodfield Recreation Ground to the common, increasing the total green space by 7,500 square metres. But locals say about 12 floodlit football pitches would take away their green space, ruin a wildlife habitat and increase traffic and noise pollution. They are supported by Anne-Marie Duff, who stars in new film The Waiting Room, which features Tooting Triangle. The actress said: “You can see from the film what a lovely place it is to go for a walk. I’d be really sorry to see it disappear.” A Wandsworth spokesman said: “This part of the common is tucked away between two railway lines and has already been built on. It is home to a disused youth club, a playground and one o’clock centre, which are all in need of refurbishment. It has existing floodlit all-weather pitches and is not a grassed area.” 

Signature 1,000 came in at 11am this morning so a huge thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word and encourage the amazing activity we’ve seen over the last day or two (we were the most active online petition in the country at one point!).

The petition will stay open until Easter so hopefully we’ll see even more support and become the Tooting Common Thousand Plus. It’s amazing to see what a community can achieve when it comes together like this and there have been literally hundreds of comments - click here if you’d like to see them.

We’ll present the petition shortly after Easter and are having a think about how we can do this to best effect. Do let us know if you have any ideas.

We hope the petition will be enough to convince Wandsworth that opposition to this proposal far outweighs the ‘high demand’ the Council refers to.
 

Wandsworth has issued another press release - more predictable spin, huff and puff. Some of it is, frankly, laughable. Apparently, ”as the drawing clearly indicates…the common would increase in size quite significantly.” An interesting concept this - whack up a huge commercial manmade development, knock down a fence surrounding an area of Metropolitan Open Land, and tell people the Common’s going to get “significantly bigger”. Surely some mistake?

”Local parents tell us they want extra facilities for their children in this part of Tooting”. Fact: The Triangle isn’t in Tooting - it lies between Balham and Streatham. Fact: despite repeated requests, the Council declines to provide any evidence that it has researched the issue - let alone provided robust data that proves what parents want are more 5 a side football pitches.

So, do we want a decent playground - yes. Do we want Common land that is properly looked after? Yes.

Do local residents want a floodlit, commercial football development on a beautiful, much loved wilderness that already supports any number of sporting activities - no thanks. 

Wandsworth also says it wants to give “young people structured activities to enjoy and give them a healthy and constructive alternative to hanging around on street corners”. Well, didn’t the ‘disused’ youth club provide that?. 

We thought we’d have a good look at the Goals Football website to see how they provide these ‘healthy and constructive alternatives’. Warning: this report contains flash claims…

”Whether it’s an inter-office grudge match or a kickabout with your mates, after work or at the weekend, we’re ready to host your big match, open 7 days 9am - 11pm. 5-a-side has come a long way from coats down in the park days. Sand-filled pitches have been given the red card! Only Goals feature the very latest rubber-crumb artificial grass on all its pitches…

”You’ll be amazed at our facilities, quality changing and locker rooms, hot showers and a superb sports bar to enjoy a post match analysis with your mates…”

Wow, ‘your post-work big match, post-match analysis with your mates, superb sports bar’ - perfect for all those children who are, apparently, in dire need of facilities like these. Oh, and did we mention this isn’t an altruistic Wandsworth-funded community service? These kind of amazing facilities come at a considerable cost, anything up to £100 per pitch per hour. Somewhat beyond the reach of the average kid who hangs around street corners.

The Triangle - and most of the Common - is a vibrant, cherished green space that is already used for kids’ sports, exercising dogs and people of all ages. In short, most local people and, crucially, the people who actually use and love the space don’t think that this development would in any way enhance it.

The petition opposing Wandsworth Council’s proposed commercial football complex on the Triangle is now live.  Sign up now up and please encourage everyone you know who is against the plan to sign up too. Do make a comment too - it helps add weight and credibility. We’re aiming for at least 1,000 signatures by Easter.

Please note all personal information is treated in the strictest confidence by the petition facilitator.

After intensive lobbying, Lambeth Council agreed at a meeting on 30th January 2008 that it should officially oppose this proposal. This is an important decision as it’s unusual for one council to oppose another prior to public consultation. The motion was passed as follows:

Tooting Triangle Field
Council notes the intention of LB Wandsworth to construct up to 12 five-a-side fenced and floodlit hard-surface football pitches on the Triangle Field, an area of Tooting Bec Common on the edge of Wandsworth used mainly by Lambeth residents in Streatham Hill, St Leonard’s and Thornton wards. 
Council opposes these plans and will take vigorous steps to campaign against the proposed development. 
Council instructs the Chief Executive to ask his opposite number at Wandsworth to drop this plan which would cause grave damage to the natural environment of the common and loss of metropolitan open land.

A wonderful contribution from a local objector - an anonymous, centuries old poem that dates back to the enclosures act…

They put in prison the man or woman

Who steels the goose from off the common

But turn the greater villain loose

Who steels the common from the goose

Hello - we may have been quiet for a while but certainly not inactive. Precious has grown significantly since we published our last post and day by day we receive new mail from people who literally can’t believe that Wandsworth really wants to develop this lovely unspoilt corner of Tooting Common.

Well, it’s true - they do. Yesterday the Council issued a beautifully spun press release,
http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/home/MyWandsworth/PressReleases/newspage_detail.htm?id=5530
 - do read it and let us know what you think.

Here are some of our thoughts:

'Local parents tell us they want extra facilities for their children in this part of Tooting.’ - Well, let’s see - first off the Triangle area of the Common isn’t actually in Tooting - its borders lie within Balham and Streatham. Secondly, most of the parents we’ve spoken to have no real interest in ‘extra’ facilities - they just want to see the ones already there updated and improved. Rachel Smeeth and other campaigning parents believe the playground on the Triangle is inadequate and uninspiring (www.triangleplayground.com), and vehemently oppose the proposed development.

The release also suggests that the playground is not a grassed area - you only have to look at it to see that’s not true! Sure there are buildings and some tarmac but there’s also a wonderful amount of grass (unusual for a playground and one o’clock centre like this). And… the release continues, ‘because a small piece of common land may be required to fit in all the things we want to offer young people, we would propose replacing that with the nearby Woodfield Recreation Ground…This recreation ground would also become fully accessible as a green open space for all residents.’

No one from Wandsworth is prepared to commit to exactly what ‘a small piece of common land’ constitutes nor, it seems, are they able to explain how the Woodfield Recreation Ground, which Mr Cooper-Grundy (head of parks for Wandsworth) confirmed at a recent MAC meeting has a Metropolitan Open Land status, which means - as far as we understand it - that this is already fully accessible to local people as a green open space.

More news soon.

Great news - see Hannah Mitchell’s post under the previous Regent’s Park post. “Controversial plans to build a football complex in Regent’s Park have been thrown out by Westminster Council.

”The Royal Parks agency applied to demolish the golf and tennis club…to make way for nine floodlit pitches on synthetic grass. The proposals sparked a record number of objections to the Council including 670 letters, 10 petition with almost 2,300 signatures and 1,465 signed postcards.

”Westminster’s planning committee said the pitches would damage the habitats the plants and animals, especially bats and tawny owls. The committee also voiced concern that the site…does not have adequate access and parking facilities, so could cause congestion in and around the park.

”Councillor Robert Davis, Cabinet Member for Planning, said “We do need more facilities for young people but this is not the right site. This application would have an adverse impact on the area’s ecology and would lead to a loss of woodland and local wildlife.”

There has been a huge response to the mailbox since we posted the report on the recent MAC meeting (where Councillor Antonia Dunn - Con for Bedford Ward - admitted she has already received over 100 expressions of concern)  and apologies for not having responded to every email individually. There have been some interesting ideas and suggestions. 

There is a definite build-up of awareness and concern and the Regent’s Park decision is confirmation that this is absolutely worth tracking, investigating and fighting. We now have a supply of business card sized cards with the site’s url and logo and asking ‘Are you aware of Wandsworth Council’s plans for Tooting Common?’. Several people have taken batches to hand out over the weekend. If you’d like some please contact mail@precious-tooting.info.