Residents used as pawns over Firs Field
I attended the council led meeting at the Sulis Club last week, to listen to discussion about the future of the Firs Field.
All the big guns of Bath and North East Somerset council attended, (i.e. councillors Hanney, Haeberling, Symonds, Beath, and Watt plus chief executive of B&NES, John Everitt, and Don Foster, MP for Bath).
We were informed that the council had been fantastic, saving Combe Down from imminent collapse into the mine shafts below.
Now they tell us they are going to save our open space known as the Firs Field by placing it within a trust company to forever protect it from future development .
The notion that it is in immediate danger of development if you do not fall in with councillors' plans is pure poppycock.
I believe the real reason for the scaremongering tactics of those running the meeting, in particular Mr Foster MP and Cllr Haeberling, is to accommodate Mr Brownsword's rugby club and plc.
Combe Down residents are being used as pawns on a chess board. Just remember that the Bath Rec is also held in trust and is being afforded little or no protection from large-scale development.
So don't be browbeaten in Comeb Down into giving up your open space to people who have another agenda entirely.
KEITH MCGARRIGLE Pulteney Gardens, Bath
7 Comments
by Mike, Weston
Friday, July 03 2009, 9:04AM
“i admit to being confused here !
why was mr McGarrigle at a meeting for combe down residents ? his address is not combe down ,”
by Alan Thomas, Combe Down
Thursday, July 02 2009, 4:30PM
“There is a wonderful irony in Mr McGarrigle accusing anybody of scaremongering. This from the man who told us that Bath Rugby were storing toxic chemicals in an unsafe manner on the Rec. The deadly toxic substance he saw turned out to be puddles of rainwater. Just another example of the drip drip of mis-information favoured by this tiny bunch of misanthropes. Keep it up Mr McGarrigle, every letter you write undermines your dreary cause a little more.”
by John, Bath
Thursday, July 02 2009, 3:12PM
“You need to understand that the recreation ground is not an extension of your back garden and never will be. The rest of Bath have a right to use it too despite the arrogance of you and your fellow Pulteney residents. I intend to continuing playing football on it in the summer and watching rugby on it in the winter. Long may this freedom continue.”
by Giles White, Combe Down
Thursday, July 02 2009, 1:55PM
“I attended the meeting that Mr McGarrigle refers to. The Council officers and members present could not have been clearer or more explicit - the Firs land swap benefits the Council - in helping it to meet the unequivocal and overwhelming desire of the vast majority of Bath residents to retain Bath Rugby at the Rec. It also potentially benefits residents of Combe Down in taking our open space out of Council ownership and in to charitable ownership. Both parties are quite clear on the agenda. Both parties stand to gain. It's called a win-win situation. Please don't patronise us, Mr McGarrigle, by expecting anyone to believe that you have the best interests of either Combe Downers or Bathonians at heart.”
by Darius Mehta, Broughton Gifford
Thursday, July 02 2009, 12:21PM
“Mr McGarrigle, instead of warning others in your usual patronising way of a hidden agenda, perhaps you should spend some time in explaining your and that of your other 11 "friends'"agenda of why you are against the will of the vast majority of Bathonians that want Rugby to stay at the Rec?
This is the Keith McGarrigle who recently castigated the Council of chopping down trees at the Rec which apparently had to be felled because they were "dead" i.e. as in no more!”
by JC, Bath
Thursday, July 02 2009, 11:34AM
“I think Combe Down Residents have more to fear from the so-called Friends. Perhaps Mr McGarrigle could confirm the actual number of 'Friends', and why their narrow self-interest is more important than the good of Bath as a whole.”
by Michael, Widcombe
Thursday, July 02 2009, 8:35AM
“How patronising of Mr McGarrigle to lecture Combe Down residents on what is and what is not right for them. It seems to me from his letter that if anyone is wanting to use them as 'pawns' it's him.”