Page 17 - Oundle Life June 2024

WHAT
A SAVE!
Fletton Field success
Thanks to North Northamptonshire Council, Oundle Town Council and the efforts of
the Fletton Field Association, the future of Fletton Field has been secured as an asset
application for Village/Town Green status was made, but this failed on technical grounds, and in 2019 Northamptonshire County Council made a second application for outline planning
of community value and publicly accessible green space.
Fletton Field, 0.7 hectares of valuable green space in the centre of Oundle, was sold to the Guardians of the Poor by John Smith’s Brewery in 1899 and was originally used as allotments
the future of Fletton Field has been secured as an asset of community value
permission to build on the field.
Both applications were unsuccessful;
principally because the site was not surplus to requirements as an area designated as open space for sport and recreation, an alternative area of open space of equivalent value and level
of accessibility was not available, and because of the negative impact on the surroundings.
for the workhouse. Subsequently, Northamptonshire County Council
(NCC) acquired title under the Local Government Act of 1929 that abolished
Poor Law Unions and transferred assets and powers to local authorities. The field was then used by Oundle Primary School until the school was relocated in 2016.
In 2015 NCC made an application for outline planning permission to build on the field, and the Oundle Recreation and Green Spaces Group began a campaign to ‘Save Fletton Field’. An
Local government in Northamptonshire has since been reorganised, as a consequence of Northamptonshire County Council’s financial difficulties, and two unitary authorities came into being on 1 April 2021. North Northamptonshire Council inherited title to Fletton Field, creating a new opportunity, and the Fletton Field Association was formed to reactivate the campaign.
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