Tonight's Mapledurham Playing Fields Management Committee Meeting

At tonight's Mapledurham Playing Fields Management Committee, the minutes of the previous meeting (2 December 2014) were agreed.  Mapledurham Parish's representative asked for clarification on his appointment to the Management Committee to be added.  This will appear in the next minutes.  Here is a link to the full agenda papers including the minutes.

As you will see the Management Committee discussed:

• The forthcoming consultation, which will include Mapledurham Playing Fields (MPF) as one of the possible permanent sites for The Heights primary school
• Pavilion maintenance and replacement
• Draft accounts and usage for the Pavilion and Playing Fields

One question which stood out at the meeting and was asked by Mapledurham Parish's representative (the rep), related to RBC's historic consultation to relocate Caversham Primary to MPF. The rep said the Playing Fields are a large area and that of course we don't know if the EFA is going to choose MPF, or indeed where exactly the EFA might consider putting the school.  He said many people believe that if the EFA does choose to put a school on MPF then it would be where the Pavilion is now.  The rep's concern therefore (if I heard him correctly) was the implications of this potential scenario to all the fund raising and the refurbishment of the Pavilion.

My response was not wishing to jump the gun or hopefully being accused of predetermining whatever the EFA decides, if the EFA were to submit a proposal for the school to go on part of MPF, I as the local councillor would fight very, very hard to ensure that we do not lose the facilities here and, quite the reverse that we get all we can possibly for the local community to improve the current facilities, however of course we don't know what the EFA is going to decide.

RBC officer Ben Stanesby stated that the Warren & District Residents Association has a very large amount of money in its control which is likely to have a huge influence on what would happen (should the EFA select MPF as the permanent site for The Heights).  With reference to the replacement/refurbishment of the Pavilion he stated that he didn't feel it appropriate to delay the procurement process as, even were the EFA to choose MPF, the procurement process would take about three months by which time the permanent site consultation results may be known.

A few questions were asked about the draft accounts, but apart from that I think I've probably captured the main points of interest.