Residents want right to share park with schools
Residents are not giving up on the fight to keep access to their treasured green spaces at Oakwood Park.
About 100 people attended a public meeting in the Methodist Church Hall in Tonbridge Road on Monday, angry at moves by the St Augustine Academy and Oakwood Park Grammar School to fence off their playing fields, which previously had been freely accessible.
There are no existing public rights of way over the land and the area is not designated as public open space.
The schools said the fencing off was necessary to prevent littering and dog-fouling and for the safety of students and staff.
However, the Oakwood Park Neighbourhood Community Group has lodged an application with Kent County Council to have the area registered as a town green.
Chairman Brian Flinders said: “We’d like to reiterate that our primary objective is not to cause any problems for the schools and their ongoing use of the playing fields, rather to restore the former status quo with joint use of the site, as the schools and community co-existed without serious issue for over 40 years.
“The park is large enough for us to share and residents respect the need for pupil safeguarding and just wish the schools to apply commonsense and return this respect.
“Out-of-hours access and the promise to organise litter and dog mess collections ought to satisfy all the schools’ concerns.”
Cllr Paul Harper (Lab), who is campaigning with the residents, said the issue was clearly a top priority for the area.
“A town green would allow both the schools and the community, which had until March enjoyed unchallenged access to the playing fields, to use the site as was the case from the 1960s,” he said.
The meeting agreed to support the town green application and sought also to lodge an application to establish a public right of way across the site, based on the record of more than 20 years’ free usage.
The group will consult the schools to see if they will allow public access over the holidays.