Status of the Play Area on Hermitage Green

Update as of 6th April 2008
I received an email from Stewart Souden on the 2nd April which includes the following text:

"I have finally managed to get a plan through from Banner Homes for the play area..

In terms of siting, size, height and access and having re-checked my notes from the site meeting that took place last year I consider that this plan meets the layout that was agreed at the meeting and so I am happy with it.

I am mindful that there are still some some landscaping issues to be addressed, but I think that these can all be dealt with after the engineering work is done installing the play area.

If you have any further comments on this plan, please let me know within the next 21 days. I shall otherwise inform my planning colleagues that this plan is to be approved for implementation."

It also included this file  which is the revised plan from Banner Homes which Stewart sent to me. You can either click on it, or right click to download to your own machine and view with Acrobat Reader.

If you do not have the reader for this file, then please go here to download it.

I have already logged with Stewart Souden that one item is above the agreed 2 metre height limit, agreed at the site meeting.

If you do not agree with this plan because of it's location on the green, the equipment in it, you do not want a play area at all, or any other reason,
Please contact Mr Stewart Souden who is the representative from West Berkshire Council before the 21st April

Also, please write to your parish council via either myself or Matt Frost, the Parish Council Chairman Mr David Brown,  and / or either of our two local councillors Mr Graham Pask and Mr Quentin Webb as there is a council meeting on Thursday 24th April where this will be discussed.

If you feel very strongly about this play area, I would also recommend you attending the Parish Council meeting on the 24th April to voice your opinion. This will be held at the Adelaide Room, Holy Trinity Church, Marlston Road, Hermitage at 19:45.

Since we have all moved in there has been much discussion around the "play area" it's size and location.
Back in March / April of 2007 I spoke with both Banner Homes and the local council and then polled the residents at that time to understand what the feeling was around the green.

The outcome of this poll was as follows

Current Status

A meeting was subsequently held between a small number of residents, Stewart Souden from West Berkshire Council and our 2 local councillors. Unfortunately a representative from Banner Homes was not in attendance. During the discussion, agreement was reached that the play area would be reduced in size, have the number of items reduced and that it would be relocated to the Northern corner of the green. It was agreed that no single piece of apparatus would be greater in height than 2 meters, and there would be a reduced number of items.

The plans below shows the original plan with the locations of equipment, plus the agreed new plan located in the Northern corner shown in RED.

The LAPPSET document was sent out to all residents by Banner Homes in March of 2007. If you do not have this document and would like one, a full size original can be provided to you. Please email me

Please note, the area that I have shaded in red is only my memory of the discussion as no plans have been distributed since that meeting. If this is not as was discussed, then my apologies and there is no intent to provide a false impression If you were at the gathering, please let me know how your remember it so that I can amend. An email that I received from Stewart Souden stated that the area should be upto 400sqm in size.

10th February 2008 update

Having completed the survey in the past 2 weeks I have compiled the results from the 32 properties that responded. Below are the results of that survey.

As can be seen there is an overwhelming response that the play area is not installed.

There were also many comments, I have added those below

The comments below are taken directly from the questionnaires returned.

I would still like to see a playground on the green as I was told there would be. I'm not worried about the positioning but understand others will be.

Retaining the green has far more potential use for the development than a play area. Most of the children seen cycling around the development would be to old to use such equipment.

Let's leave the green as a green, as the name suggests, the children enjoy it and I'm sure as the community spirit builds given that this summer nearly all the houses will be occupied.

If we have to have a play area keep as small as possible and as far away from apartments as possible!!

If it could be shown that enough children are interested in the play area and would use it, then I would be happy to accept the modified plan, otherwise, why bother.

If there is to be a play area, option C please (2 responses the same)

We are concerned that any play area may attract children who do not live at Hermitage Green and may cause problems for our own children and the neighbourhood generally. Our children play very happily as things stand with various games, balls, bikes etc.

We don't feel that play area is needed as to provide enough option to entertain all the children of different age groups it would take up most of the green. Also if some options are aimed at older children, will this area become a problem meeting point open to graffiti etc. Also down to health and safety issues would children need to be supervised?

Use the money from the playground to
    a) improve or upgrade the existing swings / village playground
    b)could the money be used towards landscaping the green a bit?

If we do have a play area we would prefer a small area for young children only.

We are not totally against a small play area, however we would not like to see the open green lost completely as it provides an open space for ball games and community gatherings.

happy to keep green as a green, but if we did have a park would prefer it to be smaller so that more grass was kept.

It must be kept as an open space for everyone to enjoy.

As this question has been raised at the Parish Council and by the Local councillors, I will now report this back to the Parish Council formerly at the February meeting which is scheduled for the 21st February. This will be discussed on the agenda and anyone is welcome to come along and listen, however the public can only voice their opinions during the open forum which is the first 10 minutes of the meeting. Thereafter the public are not allowed to address the council.
I will also contact Banner Homes and West Berkshire Council to understand the latest status from their perspective and report back via this website.