Maresfield Parish Council – Proposed Parking Scheme
Park Farm Lane, Maresfield for Recreation Ground Access
The only vehicle access, and recognised pedestrian access, to the Maresfield Recreation Ground is across part of the privately owned Park Farm Lane. The Parish Council was gifted a legal agreement some years ago whereby rights of access over Park Farm Lane to the MRG (and its car parks) for authorised users of the MRG were formalised. This agreement also commits the Parish Council to fund 12% of any Lane maintenance costs. It is possible that notwithstanding this agreement users of the MRG may have prescriptive rights of access.
There are some 15 properties (including 9 from c 2017) accessed from Park Farm Lane possessing access rights and their occupants, together with the Parish Council, are known as the “Lawful Users”.
The general public has used Park Farm Lane for generations and in particular the Lane and the Parish Council car parking areas are used for dropping off and picking up children attending Bonners School. This is unauthorised use of the Lane and the car parks (which is not condoned by the Parish Council) and technically constitutes trespass.
In very recent years organised sports on the MRG have increased and the additional traffic these generate, particularly at weekends, has become a nuisance to Park Farm Lane residents. The Parish Council, through its MRG Committee, has sought to limit the nuisance by insisting that, in particular, the football clubs limit access and police the parking. However more recently the Parish Council has developed plans to both increase the parking spaces and very substantially reduce the volume of traffic using Park Farm Lane (except at the entrance/exit to The High Street).
These plans have been widely consulted on and some of the feedback has prompted the suggestion that more explanation of the proposals is needed – hence this paper.
The Parish Council’s proposal is essentially in two parts:
Firstly, the enlargement of the small carpark immediately on the left as you come off the High Street and access Park Farm Lane. This would involve creating some extra spaces, improving the surface by laying plastic paving grid panels and marking out parking spaces.
Secondly, laying a 6m wide plastic panels paving grid track on the recreation ground from the small car park towards the Pavilion so that the existing car park spaces bordering Park Farm Lane are accessed from this track rather than from Park Farm Lane as at present. The current car parking spaces which are on Recreation Ground land, thus remain in situ and will be marked out. A row of bollards will be installed along the car parking boundary as it abuts the boundary of the Park Farm Lane owner’s land. Some benches and saplings will be relocated and the plans have been drawn up to ensure that there will not be any damage to existing mature trees and their root complexes. Views of the MRG will not be affected.
The Parish Council has obtained the consent of Fields in Trust (to whom the Recreation Ground is dedicated to ensure its preservation as a recreation and sporting facility) for the proposals which also do not require planning permission.
An alternative proposal of relocating all the car parking bordering Park Farm Lane to a newly created parking area along the Recreation Ground boundary with High Street/School Hill towards the ex-Bowls Club pavilion was carefully considered but had to be rejected. This was due to drainage concerns and also because the sacrifice of the necessary 12m strip of the Recreation Ground would reduce the number of regulation football pitches which could be accommodated and also compromise the cricket boundary dimension.
It is not currently proposed to gate off the proposed new track to the car parking spaces but it may probably be necessary to install modest barriers alongside the track to prevent vehicle incursion on to the Recreation Ground.
Maresfield residents will be welcome to attend the Parish Council meeting on Tuesday March 18th at 7.30pm at Fairwarp Village Hall when the Public Session will include a questions and answers session on the proposed parking scheme.