Westwood woes
Dear Mr Singleton,
It is very flattering that you think I could relocate the Westwood course of the Golf Club (founded 1889) but I am just one member of the Beverley Civic Society.
The society keeps a watchful eye on both Golf Club and Race Course, but just now we are not anxious about them.
The common pastures are not parks, but part of an agricultural business that must earn its keep, and the golfers and racers provide essential rents to the Pasture Masters, who have successfully defended the pastures without our help for hundreds of years.
The football and hockey pitches have gone (Health & Safety) so there is now less sport on Westwood than in the past. In 45 years of walking on Westwood, I have not yet been menaced by a golf ball, and I hope you too will survive.
We have two particular concerns about Westwood just now: the unlawful parking and the ‘drainage’ works.
To avoid parking charges, up to a hundred cars and vans park on Westwood each weekday, destroying the verges: most of these are commuters to Beverley, avoiding the town’s parking charges.
They stay eight hours, not the four hours allowed: and most park across the footpath, forcing pedestrians to walk on the road.
The police say it is up to ERYC (which claims to ‘own’ Westwood), that has parking enforcement powers it never uses.
The ‘drainage’ works on York Road began in January 2012 and were to be finished by summer 2012. A large area of pasture has been wasted by the builders, and millions of pounds poured into a scheme that is not yet working.
Under the Commons Act 2006 no enclosures, however temporary, are allowed on common land without DEFRA approval, yet we understand that no application for the roads, buildings and fences has been made.
We all want the inhabitants of Willow Grove to be protected and the mess to be cleared up as soon as possible, but ERYC should not continue to disregard the laws that protect all our commons.
Barbara English,
Westwood Close,
Beverley
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Beverley
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
