The Rec

Standish Voice will not include a site allocation of a car park on The Rec, on Southlands Avenue, in the draft Standish Neighbourhood Plan.

The consultation on The Rec showed, in a poll and in written representations, that 60% of people wanted a small car park on The Rec with a new park, with 40% saying a car park was not wanted.

We also said we would take into special consideration the residents who live near to the site.

We believe 60% in favour is not large enough to warrant a policy in the draft Neighbourhood Plan and, also, an alternative site could be available.

Before the consultation on The Rec, Standish Voice and Wigan Council looked at all available sites for a public car park in the centre of Standish and we have continued to do this.

Therefore, we will re-establish the Standish Car Parking Sub-Group to look at all these sites again, including The Rec.

The Sub-Group will include two members of Standish Voice and Wigan Council officers, and Standish councillors and a representative of Don’t Wreck Our Rec campaign group will be also invited on to it.

The Rec is currently underused. We have a draft policy to create a community park on The Rec, which includes children’s play provision, including for ball games, footpaths and community gardens. Standish Voice would like to see a junior football pitch as part of those plans.

In our consultation on The Rec, 83% of people responded that they would like to turn The Rec into a community park with only 17% wanting to leave it as it is.

People responding to the consultation on The Rec repeatedly told us that they wanted children and young people to use it much more, and this is reflected in the draft policy.

Please give us your views on the draft policy by using the feedback form on the main draft plan page, the Home page.

As part of the development of Standish Neighbourhood Plan, Standish Voice conducted two consultations on The Rec playing field, on Southlands Avenue, in Standish.

These consultations, together with the findings of the Neighbourhood Plan survey in 2015 and other evidence will be used to create a policy on The Rec, which Standish Voice believes is underused and in need of improvement.

Below is information on those consultations. ‘The Future Of The Rec’ was the first consultation which asked the community what it wanted to do generally with The  Rec. ‘How would you like to see The Rec Improved’ asked what facilities should be there if the site was turned into an urban park.

Other information includes statements by Standish Voice’s committee on the issue.

If you have any questions on this information, please contact us at standisheighbourhoodforum@gmail.com.