Our open spaces - Mansfield & Ashfield Liberal Democrats

Hucknall couldn’t be positioned better, to the south we have the City of Nottingham and in all the other directions we have farms, parks and woodlands with other former industrial towns and rural villages between. We get the best of both worlds and while most of the land is private, the open spaces we do have allow us to enjoy the countryside and still have all the luxuries of the city on our doorstep.

Of course these open spaces need to be managed and the councils have potential to make money by selling them on to developers. With the reduction in funding from central government, loss of EU funding and also the bribe offered for creating the combined Notts & Derby authority (which is going well with the looks of it). We can not allow the idea of even discussing this at county hall or in council chambers.

The Liberal Democrats will fight tooth and nail to retain our open spaces and ensure they are properly maintained.

The Ranges park in Hucknall is beautiful, in the spring and autumn you get to look out across Hucknall to the Misk Hills and towards Bestwood and Linby. The park is used frequently by dog walkers and locals to enjoy the fresh air.

Being a former pit spoil heap, drainage is a problem and much of the water run off collects in the small pond at the town centre end of the park. The pond has had no life ring now since October and has been reported repeatably to both ADC (who claim its a Gedling BC problems) and NCC (who say it will be looked into, but never is). Its not only this, litter is strewn all over the park (not helped by the lack of bins) and covered in dog mess. While these are problems caused by a few within the local community, the slow speed these things are cleaned up just adds to the feeling of “No one else cares so why should I!”.

Come on @NottsCC almost 4 months and still missing on the Ranges. Do I need to buy & donate one myself? pic.twitter.com/6mcQi9F1VN

— Glynn Quelch 🇬🇧🇪🇪 (@glynnquelch) February 7, 2017

So alongside protecting our open spaces from being sold off, we are also campaigning for more attention to keeping our areas clean. If the council can not afford to maintain these areas correctly without scaling back on other essential services. They should be open and honest, asking the local communities if they can help with community groups and working side by side.

If you believe our open spaces should never be sold and maintained to a high standard, please vote Liberal Democrats on May 4th.