Petition organisers promised St Thomas’s Play Park in Cambridge is safe – but there will be less green space
Petition organisers have been reassured that a play park in Cambridge that they feared would be removed for new development is safe - but concerns remain.
The pledge came after city councillors were presented with a petition titled ‘Save St Thomas’s Play Park’, which called for a review of a council home project agreed in September 2021.
Under the £2.1million scheme, new council homes were planned for the St Thomas’s Road garages and playground in the Coleridge ward.
The petition, signed by 69 people, urged the housing scrutiny committee to re-examine the “emerging plans” to develop the play park and the wider green space. They accepted that it “makes sense” to redevelop the garages, but pointed out that the park was a protected space under the council’s Local Plan.
Complaining of a “vacuum of information” about the proposals, the petition organisers said: “The principle of losing existing public open spaces in wards with current open space deficits should not be contemplated.”
But Cllr Sam Carling (Lab, West Chesterton), the executive councillor for open spaces and city services, said it was not proposed to remove the play park.
He said: “While the development would need the existing equipment to be removed, it would be replaced with either the same equipment in a slightly different location, or better equipment.
“I know there has been concern from the community about underinvestment in the play park, so this would be a really good opportunity to bring in better equipment and solve some of the issues of the existing park. I hope we can work together with the wider community to do that.”
Cllr Carling said the number of houses proposed to be built on the site had been reduced from 11 to seven following consultation with people in the area.
He added that 69 per cent of the existing green space would be kept, and that a new “high quality community garden” was also proposed to be created over the road.
Cllr Carling said: “I hope that is reassuring. As a council we take our green spaces very seriously and we care very much about making sure that all residents have high quality green spaces nearby.”
He added that another consultation was planned in July, after which a planning application for the development is due to be submitted for the project.
Afterwards, one resident told the Cambridge Independent that the council had conflated the play park with the play area and there were concerns over the amount of green space proposed.
Concerns also persist on how the park will be maintained as an amenity for the wider community, with calls persisting for more transparent future consultation on the development.
