Wiltshire Council has sold off four school playing fields and raised £6.875 million in the process but has so far failed to reveal what has happened to the money.
The Tory-controlled authority was asked by Marlborough News Online to provide this information, as there are fears that it has not been added to the council’s budget for educational purposes.
And also because of growing demands, following the success of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, that the sale of sports facilities must be legally stopped.
Former Tory minister Lord Moynihan, about to step down as the British Olympics Association chairman, has called for the first ever Government audit of the number of leisure and sports facilities in the UK amid evidence of an alarming decline.
He wants the government to introduce legislation forcing councils to protect their leisure and sports facilities.
“I wasn’t’ aware of Wiltshire selling off playing fields,” Councillor Nick Fogg, who represents Marlborough on Wiltshire Council, told Marlborough News Online. “I know this selling off of playing fields is a bit of a scandal nationwide. And I find that regrettable.”
A Wiltshire Council senior press officer told us: “It appears there are only four. And these mainly relate to school playing fields for schools which have amalgamated or moved.”
“I am unable to give to individual amounts as we understand some are the subject of confidentiality agreements. The public details are available through the land registry.”
“Wiltshire Council received somewhere in the region of £6.875m for their sales.”
The specific sales were as follows:
* Wilton former Middle School Site – Thistledown. 04/06/2010. Thistledown Educational Trust. Wiltshire Council received 50 per cent of price, rest paid to the diocese.
* Wootton Bassett Rylands Stoneover Lane Land. 10/10/2011. Rugby pitch replaced with new club facilities.
* Melksham Queensway Site – Sold to Sarsen Housing for social housing – December 2011. Playing field provision no longer required as sale arose from merger of two schools.
* Salisbury Fisherton Manor site – to Taylor Wimpey – February 2012.
This site is at least 80 per cent building or tarmac playground, being the former Highbury First and Fisherton Manor Middle School buildings. Field retained as site of Manor Fields Primary School.
“There may be a reason for the sales in some cases,” added Councillor Fogg. “But the general process is to be regretted particular given our wonderful performances in the Olympic Games.”
“Obviously it is quite crucial to the health and welfare of the nation that playing fields are available to all schools.”
The Daily Telegraph has launched a campaign called ‘Keep The Flame Alive’ to boost school sport after the Olympics’ success and to encourage more volunteering.
“When we see facilities being cut back then those who have been inspired by the Games don’t get the opportunity to really engage in sport,” Lord Moynihan protested. “We should be looking at changing the law to make provision of sport and recreation opportunity a statutory requirement.
“At the moment in England it’s discretionary and once it’s discretionary it’s inevitable that councillors will be looking for discretionary cutbacks first.”
Sports provision is currently a legal requirement in Scotland and Northern Ireland but not in England and Wales. However despite this, a survey found that councils across the UK had cut back on sports facilities.
Out of the 369 councils that took part in a survey, 126 – some 36 per cent – admitted they had reduced sports provision for local people. They included 70 authorities which said they had closed one or more facilities, and 82 councils which had cut hours at on or more of its centres.
Just 33 councils had added new sports facilities or increased opening hours.
