What a new 'pocket park' will deliver to a community

An application proposing it at the land bound by Cooper Street, Chapel Street and Halefield Street – in the Windle Ward – was approved, subject to conditions, by the planning committee on Tuesday.

According to a report to the committee, the application site is currently comprised of grassland, with existing mature trees to the west. There are existing residential dwellings fully surrounding the site, adjoining the site to the south and west and beyond the highways to the north and east.

It said the proposed facility would include the installation of lighting, a black steel litter bin, public seating, bollards, tree planting and cycle parking – while 13 trees would be planted alongside the path and along the boundaries of the site with Cooper Street and Chapel Street.

Committee member Cllr Seve Gomez-Aspron, who is the deputy council leader, said he has “no issue with approving the creation of a park for future generations of the borough to use”.

“You can tell from the map, it was obviously a row of terraces at some point that’s been flattened and we’ve recycled it into something that we want to,” he said.

“So we could put this land on the market, sell it for housing, do whatever we want to do.

“We are choosing to invest in it, in a park, in a community, near a relatively deprived area, because that’s a nice thing to do for those communities.”

Cllr Gomez-Aspron said some of the objections are “mainly about issues that already exist and this will never fix those issues”.

“And there’s always a request for CCTV to be installed anywhere, it’s only as good as it is until somebody covers their face,” he added.

“We have CCTV at some parks and it makes no real difference when something terrible happens.”

The report to the committee said the principle of the development is acceptable as the proposal “would create a new pocket park facility which will provide improved and usable green infrastructure and new opportunities for outdoor recreation”.