Recreation Ground to boost district centre!

2.59.28pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 7th Jul 2004

A legal blunder by Manchester City Council will result in a new recreation ground being built at Beswick District Centre to replace a site which had been long neglected by the City Council despite being left in their care for the recreational use of Manchester People.

Indeed the original site had become so neglected that the Council agreed to sell it for housing without realising that it was still recreational ground held in trust.

At the Council's Executive Committee Lib Dem Cllr Iain Donaldson stated that "It was only when I visited the recreation ground to see what condition it was in that I discovered to my horror that the foundations for new housing had already been laid on it."

"I was astounded that a report before us from officers made no mention of the fact that they were asking us to advertise the loss of open space, and authorise the sale of land where the foundations were already laid for building work to begin."

At the committee, officers stated that the mistake was due to bad legal advice received about the wording of the original trust.

Cllr Donaldson added, "It is absolutely clear that if the legal advice had not been changed then this issue would not have come before Councillors at all and another piece of recreational land would have been sold by this Labour Council from under the noses of our citizens."