Recreation Field Project

Phase 1: The Orchard

Background

The recreational field was sold to the Parish Council in 2003 for £1 by Shell Property. The recreational field also included an orchard that was part of the Old Carrington Hall kitchen gardens.

In 2002 Manchester United installed a football pitch and arranged to maintain the grounds for a further three years, as the pitch was never used by the community and the local romany community began using the area for horse pasture.

Added to the site was a Pavilion that was used for community events, which has fallen into disrepair, then made unsafe for occupancy in 2016 after a fire.

With very limited income the Parish council were unable to open this facility to the public and was permanently closed.

Landfill

In 2019 a planning application was granted to import inert material that would raise the ground level by two metres. The community began to challenge this decision with the Parish Council, which effected a mass resignation of all the Parish Councillors. With new Parish Councillor members in place by September 2019, they began a challenge on the legality of the heads of terms agreement with the former members of the Parish Council. The last correspondence from the applicant or their solicitors was in October 2020, who are still waiting for further instructions from their client.

Community engagement

The Parish council have engaged with the community since 2020 to understand what they want to do with this area. A unanimous desire was to bring it back to life for the community.

Throughout the development of the Orchard regular updates will be completed using social media.

There have been a number of parishioners expressing an interest to help with this project.

Our ambition

It is the ambition of the Parish Council to restore the recreational field for community use. This ambition needs, like most things in life, money to make it happen. We are in a fortunate position that the housing development for New Carrington is bringing in additional income to the Parish for Community Infrastructure capital investment, but is capped to £30,000 per year. The full restoration would take many years to realise, therefore a Kaizen approach is to be employed and start small and focus on the Orchard area first.

Task 1 - Grounds clearance

To prepare the site for the new fence line across the northern area the bramble and other overgrowth needs to be cut back and chemically treated to reduce further growth.

• The cut back and removal will be completed by the Parish Council

• Spray treatment completed by a qualified sprayer with appropriate chemicals.

Task 3- Arbology and horticulture

• Thorn tree removal

  • To open up a space for a group activity area, 50% of the thorn is to be removed and taken off site.

  • Removal to be completed contractors.

• Tree planting

  • City of Trees Manchester have already inspected the existing fruit trees health

  • They are also able to provide additional fruit trees at no cost. Appropriate species and planning locations are to be finalised with them.

  • Planting would be completed by the Parish Council.

• Thorn hedge planting

  • The hedge is planned along the new north/south fence line to provide additional security and seclusion.

  • It will take too long to propagate the hawthorn whips from seed, therefore young whips will be planted.

  • The hawthorn whips will be bought from a local supplier and planted by the Parish Council.

Task 4 - Site access

The external public entrance is currently blocked and has trench dug on the internal side; this was done to prevent unwanted access to the site.

The trench needs to be backfilled and the external part of the entrance to have the earth mound removed, once this has been done the safety and integrity of the existing galvanised metal gate can be evaluated.

To provide access for wheelchairs and buggies a trackway matting system needs to be installed.

Task 5 - Picnic areas

Areas with seating, benches and waste bins are to be installed and secured, the outline plan shows estimated location. This work is to be completed by the Parish Council.

Funding

The Parish Council will be receiving a substantial income during the development period of New Carrington from the Community Infrastructure levy. The budget for phase 1 has not yet been formally agreed and minuted by the Parish Council, but based on the costing is likely to be £13,000

Costing for Phase 1

Maintenance

Once phase 1 has been completed regular grounds maintenance will need to be completed.

The following will be on a contracted maintenance plan:

• Hedges cut back twice a year outside of the nesting season.

• Brambles and other overgrowth

• Group activity area on a scheduled/seasonal cutting plan (other grassed areas will developed as meadow lawns)