Moves afoot to reinstate Oldford playpark

Welshpool Town Council is set to meet with Clwyd Alyn Housing senior officials to discuss ways of bringing the Oldford Playpark back to life following a wrangle over responsibilities.

The issue has been persistently aired in the council chamber by Cllr Phil Pritchard over the past 18 months, but there appeared to be little progress until an update at this week’s Services and Property Committee.

Cllr Richard Church revealed that he had met a representative this week from Clwyd Alyn, the housing association responsible for Oldford, to discuss a way forward.

“The meeting was quite helpful,” said Cllr Church. “He confirmed that there was a document called the Tenants Guarantee that was agreed between the Oldford Tenants Association and Clwyd Alyn at the time. He is contacting the solicitor for Clwyd Alyn to get a copy of that.

“He also said the land where the play area is located had been subject of a lease to Oldford Tenants Association but that lease had now expired because they didn’t have the resources to continue to manage the play area.

“He has suggested that we have a meeting with himself and the senior development manager of Clwyd Alyn together with the chair of this committee (Cllr Nick Howells) and perhaps the Town Clerk to talk through working together and how we can go about applying for a grant to replace play equipment within that area, and also to consider the ‘Scansis’ pitch at the same time.”

Cllr Nick Howells was quick to point out that the cash-strapped Town Council should not make any financial commitments to the project, and also highlighted that there was a “fully functional playground at Maesydre just across the road from Oldford” which could be reached by a safe pedestrian crossing.

“The children from Oldford have no further to go to travel to a play area than the children from Bronybuckley and Woodside have to travel if they wish to use the Dolyfelin play area, where they cross an extremely busy road with no pedestrian crossing,” highlighted Cllr Howells.

Cllr Morag Bailey revealed that she wrote the Tenants Guarantee some 40 years earlier and said “it does have a legal standing”.

“I can’t remember word-for-word what it said but that document also forms part of the deed of transfer for Oldford, so it does have a legal standing,” she said. “We are talking 40 years ago now. But, I agree, we should be working together as a partnership going forward.”

Councillors unanimously backed the proposal for a meeting to take place for the Town Council to look at how all partiers can work together to make the project happen.