Support us from £3/month
We deal with almost 1000 cases a year assisting communities, groups and individuals in protecting their local spaces and paths in all parts of England and Wales. Can you help us by joining as a member?
We have objected strongly to plans by Carrington Moore Estates, in which the former Welsh rugby captain Andy Moore has an interest, to dig up Picket Mead Common at Newton, Swansea.
The developers want to bury underground services (electricity, gas, water, telecoms and drainage) and lay grasscrete on the common, in connection with their planning consent for four dwellings and associated works, and the partial demolition of Picket Mead House, adjacent to the common.
Before the development can go ahead, the developers need the consent of the Environment Minister for works on common land, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006.
The public has the right to walk and ride all over this small common and to enjoy this green lung. The works will severely interfere with the common and people’s enjoyment of it. The developers claim that the works are ‘of a minimal nature’ but that is misleading. Even when all the services have been laid and the land put back, it will not be the same. Grasscrete is an inappropriate surface for this open space where children run about, and it will suburbanise it.
The developers also say that the area ‘is not used by the general public’. That too is wrong, for people love this small green space, they wander over it while children run and play here.
We have strongly urged the environment minister to refuse the application and let this lovely common remain as a small pearl on the edge of Swansea.