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Proposed Bamford Play Area, Norden Road
Bamford Conservatives are opposed to the proposed play area opposite Bamford Precinct on Norden Road. Bamford Village is predominantly a residential area and most houses have gardens which provide plenty of play space for children under the watchful eyes of their parents. This play area will not be for very young children. Regardless of statistics, play areas do become targets of vandalism by young people whose parents have no idea where they are and what they are doing and often don’t care, which is another headache for our over-stretched police force and costly replacement of play equipment by the Council. Until such time as the parents of those children begin to accept responsibility for them and their actions, play areas should be restricted to local parks where there are usually responsible people around.
When Sir Samuel Turner gave this land to the people of Bamford, the area was a village and he was probably thinking that the land would be used as a village green. The majority of people in Bamford would like to see it kept like that and has nothing to do with NIMBYism and would be in accordance with Sir Samuel’s wishes. This site should never have been proposed in the first place and the issue is causing ill-feeling in the community.
The residents of Bamford Mews and the cottages at the side of the proposed site have therefore every right to object and anybody else for that matter – this land ‘belongs’ to ALL the people of Bamford. There is already youth nuisance and under-age drinking taking place in the wooded area at the back of the terraced houses on the other side of the site and which the Council and police seem powerless to eradicate. The proposed site will be a magnet for these young people. The fact is that the Government has given all Councils an amount of money specifically for providing play areas and that means they have a limited time in which to use it, otherwise the money has to be relinquished. That is why the Lib.Dems are rushing it through and why they’ve promoted it in their recent Bamford newsletter. There is a Lib.Dem ‘dictatorship’ on Rochdale Council, not a democracy! A more balanced representation is the answer, which is entirely in the public’s hands when it comes to voting in the local elections; not until then will democracy return!
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