Kings Hill country park

Heath Farm Update Statement

 

It is with much regret that as a result of the very difficult economic times that we find ourselves in, Liberty Property Trust, Kent County Council (KCC) and Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) have shelved their proposals that would have seen CACT manage the sports fields and pavilion that will be built at Heath Farm on Kings Hill.

The challenge in providing the playing fields and sports pavilion at Kings Hill has been to create a truly great legacy for the community. The tie-up with CACT was an important aspect in the execution of that legacy since CACT would have brought an unparalleled level of management expertise and creativity to the after-care of this once-in-a-lifetime project. With many communities losing their playing fields in recent years, the combination of the provision of new first-rate facilities and a premium after-care service could have made the Heath Farm development the envy of every parish in the County.

However, the economic environment has ultimately left CACT with gaps in capital funding needs that ultimately could not be filled by Sport England as well as gaps in revenue funding that the charity was also no longer able to plug with public finance. So, after due consideration, all parties have agreed to discontinue their proposed partnership in this ambitious project.

Liberty’s on-going commitment to the provision of sporting facilities at Kings Hill originates from planning obligations within the various planning consents for the development which require, as a minimum, the construction of 6 playing fields and related changing facilities. Those obligations are often referred to as the “base scheme”. However, with the prospect of working with CACT, Liberty and KCC had proposed a slightly larger development with the addition of 3 further pitches, one of which would have had an artificial surface that would have had the added benefit of increasing the range and duration of sports on offer to the community. The addition of the artificial pitch would also help Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council (TMBC) to achieve their objective of providing a “full size floodlit all weather pitch with community access” as identified in the boroughs Leisure & Arts Strategy 2008-2013.

As many people will know, it has been a long held ambition of Liberty, KCC and TMBC to create the best possible solution for Heath Farm both in terms of what it provides and how it is managed, as well as considering the wider social responsibilities to enable the facilities to be of the greatest possible benefit to all sectors of the community. It is therefore interesting to see the similarities between the Heath Farm project and the recently announced Fields in Trust project which is being promoted and publicly supported by Prince William. Fields in Trust (formerly the National Playing Fields Association) have always supported the widely held view that playing fields have been shown to help with community cohesion, reduce anti-social behavior and improve health and wellbeing. A view naturally supported by Alison Moore-Gwyn, Chief Executive of Fields in Trust, whose “…core vision is to ensure that everyone – whether they are young or old, able or disabled and no matter where they live – has access to outdoor space for sport, play and recreation. Access to these facilities is vital to ensuring our communities are robust and healthy – a health that is achieved not just through participating in physical activity but, equally importantly, by providing a sense of community cohesion”. This, of course, is the vision shared by most people in the community and it is a vision that will remain at the heart of the Heath Farm project going forward.

At the public consultation events, Liberty made the commitment to further supplement our planning obligations by volunteering to set areas of land aside for the future creation of a bowls club as well as a site for public allotments. These commitments are still in place notwithstanding the changes in the after-care of the project. We are also pleased to announce that the Country Park will, subject to sign-off from TMBC, be opened to the public during this coming August.

With regard to the playing fields and pavilion, the location of the pavilion changed following resident consultation and now sits more squarely in the centre of the development. Likewise, following consultation, those pitches closest to housing have been moved deeper into Heath Farm and the additional noise surveys that have been undertaken at residents request confirm the new arrangements work very well.

Going forward, Liberty and KCC will be developing an alternative after-care strategy that we hope will capture the best aspects of the CACT offer whilst accepting that the benefits of the “brand” that CACT were able to offer are a thing of the past. Liberty will continue to take forward the principles set out at the public consultations (i.e. Kings Hill Football Club being a principal user of the pitches, together with a priority booking scheme for local residents) into any new management regime. We also hope that Kings Hill Parish Council will have an input into the plans for managing the facility.

In reality, with or without CACT, some extra playing surfaces would have been needed over and above the base scheme just to cope with the phenomenal local demand from Kings Hill Football Club which has grown from 7 to 17 teams since the agreement of the original planning obligations. Please be assured that Liberty and KCC are also keen to encourage a range of sports are played on the pitches, and we will consider this within the overall design. What remains to be finalised now is the number and phasing of the pitches to be built in light of this, as well as the size of the pavilion (which is partly influenced by the number of pitches). New drawings will be submitted to TMBC as soon as possible, which along with the rest of the planning application can then be given due consultation through the usual planning processes.

Liberty is committed to keeping residents notified as the new pitch and pavilion arrangements take shape and advising on the probable after-care solution to ensure the best possible legacy for the project and we must now look forward positively to delivering the best possible alternative solution for Kings Hill.