THE erection of a fence on Buncer Lane along the side of Witton Park has deprived me of my use of Ned Hole Woods.
I have used this footpath on a daily basis for over 25 years and consider that needless enclosure by fencing has taken away my right of use.
Regarding your article (August 14) Blackburn with Darwen Councillor Jack Fairless talks about teachers having to look for and clear up dog deposits. Jack knows little of what actually goes on within the periphery of these large fields.
Litter is the principal problem around the school grounds, so much so that pupils have to be designated to clean what I consider is an obvious disregard of acceptable behaviour, rather than attend the classes their parents sent them to school for.
Something that concerns park users much more than dog deposits is the fact that the wooded periphery of the school land is littered with used condoms. Coun Fairless also stated that he would rather spend £3,000 of Blackburn taxpayers money in order to save the County Council's £8,000 to fence off the northern perimeter of Witton Park School.
Witton Park School and education are still a County function and will be until it has been officially handed over to the Borough. The school pays £85,000 rates. Some of this is for land that is little-used by its pupils.
Therefore, arguments over functional use of these playing fields are flawed, mainly because the pupils now use the school's purpose-built area within the park for sport, and the facilities provided by the Borough which are used by many other schools and are second to none.
A logical solution would have been for the school to return some of the land not in use to the council.
I believe that its perimeter fence should merely enclose the concreted hard standing, pathways and playground areas, which would have created a defensible supervised air space and a safer environment for the pupils.
The yearly savings made on rates would have allowed for this and have provided extra money for education.
The function of a paid elected member is to represent their ward constituents. I have not seen any effective representation or consultation from the majority of councillors concerned in this issue.
CHRISTINE CRAMSIE, Member of the Witton Park user group, St Mark's Road, Blackburn.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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