Sheffield park lovers’ group increase pressure on council in row over use of land

The Friends of Graves Park have again written to the Charity Commission to lodge their opposition to the council’s attempt to obtain a 12-month temporary licence to run a parks and countryside service depot from Norton Nurseries, which is part of Graves Park.

Following a previous objection by the Friends, the commission warned the council last year that it was in breach of the Charities Act 2011. That prompted the council to start looking for somewhere to relocate the depot.

The chair of the committee involved in the row has sought to assure the Friends group that the issue is being taken seriously and the council wants to work together to resolve it.

The Friends group have gone to the commission as part of their long-running campaign to have more of the old nurseries site restored to parkland, as they have done previously. They have already raised the money to cover the costs.

They have long fought plans to use any part of the park, which is owned by a charitable trust of which the council is sole trustee, for other purposes. The council’s charity sub-committee, which next meets on June 23, oversees its charitable trusts for parks and buildings.

Disposal

Friends chair Caroline Dewar told the Charity Commission that the council parks and countryside department is asking the charity sub-committee to grant a 12-month temporary licence to use Norton Nurseries as an operational base. She said the licence will include services to more than 35 other parks and open spaces.

Waste collected from parks is stored at the nurseries before being transferred for disposal. Machinery and vehicles are also stored there.

She stated: “This site has been operating illegally as a depot for the past eight years or more. To grant a licence would be to condone the illegal operation during this time.

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“This is charitable parkland and should only be used for the benefit of the Graves Park Trust. There is no benefit to the trust for using this site as a depot for other parts of Sheffield.

“Proposing the leasing of the site from the Graves Park Trust, then charging the trust for its maintenance, which is what is proposed in the report, cancels out any supposed benefit to the trust and could be interpreted as sharp practice and of no benefit to the trust.

“To lease the site as a depot for £60,000 per annum appears incredibly cheap. To grant a temporary licence opens the door to that licence being made permanent in the future.”

Heritage

She added: “The Norton Nurseries site has a conservation area on the northern boundary, a residential area on the southern boundary and a nationally-designated wildlife area on the western boundary. In addition, it has a 17th/18th century walled garden within it, some of which still remains, as well as a lodge house which is also listed.

“The whole of the park, including the Norton Nurseries section, has been identified as being of heritage importance. This suggests that it is totally unsuitable as a depot, which is collecting refuse, including dog excrement, from the southern side of Sheffield. “The collection of waste and handling of waste on the site is wholly inappropriate and as far as we are aware, should have licence of its own.”

She said that “the Friends are very concerned about the conflict of interest in this situation, as the council is effectively applying to itself to run a depot on charitable land.

“Effectively, this lease would be a further disposal, this time of the land by the trustee to itself.”

Charity trustee sub-committee chair Coun Richard Williams said: “We are aware of the requests that have been made by the Friends of Graves Park to the Charity Commission to return the depot facility at Norton Nurseries in Graves Park back into parkland.

“These matters are being taken very seriously and have been, and continue to be discussed and worked out, in detail by the council’s charity trustee sub-committee.

“There is currently work being undertaken to relocate as much of the council’s depot facilities as possible out of Norton Nursery so that part of, or all of, the site can be returned to parkland as soon as possible.

“We want to reassure the Friends of group, park users and the local community that we are working on a solution as quickly as possible, but the process is complex. We remain fully committed to listening to and working with the Friends of Graves Park group.”