Telford playing fields protest group set to disband

The Save Teece Drive Playing Fields, Priorslee group launched a crowd funding campaign to raise £2,000 to fund a judicial review against plans to expand the adjacent Holy Trinity Academy. The scheme will see the Teece Dive playing fields largely fenced off, giving the school exclusive use of them.

They raised £1,154 towards the target of £2,000 but have run out of time to raise the rest of the money and now it is looking likely the group will disband

Planning permission for the development was granted in December. It will allow 1,200 pupils to attend the school and see a three-story teaching block, 3G pitches with floodlights, extensions to the existing school and an eight feet high fence erected around the perimeter of the pitches.

The group say it is one of the last remaining green spaces in Priorslee, and access for the community has remained unrestricted for 30 years.

They had the support of Telford MP Lucy Allan who said the scheme would lead to a loss of 'much needed' community green space.

But Paul Thomas from the group said they now had little option but to reluctantly accept the decision.

He said: "We thank everyone who has supported the campaign but time has run out on us and we didn't raise enough money in time to seek counsel against this scheme, which has gone through with very little consultation or interaction with the community.

"Our calls for meetings with the school fell on deaf ears and it's not as if we are completely against the expansion of the school, we are sympathetic to the fact the school roll is growing and the need for more facilities.

"But it was the plan to put the 2.4m high fence in to completely cut the community off where we would rather see a low-level arrangement which would provide access for the public when the field is not needed.

"I don't see where we go, now the crowdfunding option towards a possible review has been exhausted."