EXCLUSIVE: ‘We Have Honoured Our Pledge And Created Five Village Greens.’ Havering’s Character Protected.

Today, Havering Council Cabinet Member for Development and Regeneration Councillor Graham Williamson writes exclusively in the Havering Daily on the five approved village green statuses across the borough.

Most of our residents will be aware that Havering, like most Councils, have large Housing Targets to meet. Unfortunately, in developers drive to build units and maintain profits, green spaces are being sacrificed for concrete. Apart from creating potential flooding, there is the loss of visual beauty and playing space. 

Like residents, the Havering Residents Association (HRA) bemoaned the loss of green spaces and one of the HRA’s wishes that was turned into a Pledge in the election, was to preserve where at all possible our borough’s valuable green public spaces. Council bureaucracy turns slowly but I was finally delighted to unveil the Council’s new policy to honour that pledge and protect them *. 

Our aim was to identify the most valuable green spaces and turn them into Village Greens. This is important because, once in place, no development can be carried out on them without an Act of Parliament!  

Village Green’s (VG) however have to meet certain conditions to become registered e.g. areas of land where local people have taken part in lawful sports and pastimes over a period of time (20 years). The lawful sports and pastimes may include organised or informal games, such as football or cricket, and picnics, fetes, dog walking or other similar activities.

We have chosen therefore those that most meet the VG conditions, the most valuable, and most loved. This will be Dovers Farm (Beam Park ward), Gooshays Green (Gooshays), Wennington Green (Rainham), Fleet Close Play Area (Cranham), and Taunton Road (Gooshays). The residents of the first two Greens campaigned against them being built upon and residents of Dovers Farm actually asked for VG status but was opposed by the last Council Administration.

We were elected to protect, amongst other things, Havering’s character e.g. suburbia, and residential green spaces are a part of that. The Council’s dire financial position has been the Administration’s priority concern last year but we will increasingly begin to deliver our election promises as time goes on.   

Havering’s Cabinet, which includes Resident Association and Labour Councillors unanimously agreed, on the 3rd May, to start the designation process of turning the chosen land into Village Greens.

Dover Farm Green.

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