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Barn Elms Running Track - Council wants to see it go.

Save Barn Elms

Target:
The Community of Barnes and those near to us.
Sponsored by: 
We strongly object to the proposed sale of up to 5.5 acres of the Barn Elms land to private sports club developers.  We believe that the Barn Elms Playing fields should be retained for community use and not for a private health club as is proposed by the Richmond Upon Thames Council.  We believe that the cost for the regeneration of the Barn Elms Playing Fields and sporting facilities should be provided from our substantial tax reserves and from funds given for that purpose.  The council's stated policy is to provide access to quality facilities for sports and leisure activities, conserve and protect the environment and open spaces and to ensure the safety of the users.  We believe the council has the resources and funds to provide these services with respect to the Barn Elms playing fields and proposed improvements.   There is no need to sell public land intended for community use to private developers.
We strongly object to the proposed sale of up to 5.5 acres of the Barn Elms land to private sports club developers.  We believe that the Barn Elms Playing fields should be retained for community use and not for a private health club as is proposed by the Richmond Upon Thames Council.  We believe that the cost for the regeneration of the Barn Elms Playing Fields and sporting facilities should be provided from our substantial tax reserves and from funds given for that purpose.  The council's stated policy is to provide access to quality facilities for sports and leisure activities, conserve and protect the environment and open spaces and to ensure the safety of the users.  We believe the council has the resources and funds to provide these services with respect to the Barn Elms playing fields and proposed improvements.   There is no need to sell public land intended for community use to private developers.
We, the undersigned citizens urge the Richmond upon Thames Council, The London Assembly, and the London Mayor's Office to act now to pursue a restoration, improvement and maintenance scheme for the Barn Elms playing fields and sports facilities. This scheme should incorporate a fully comprehensive sports programme which does not involve the sale or lease of any portion of Barn Elms property and does not compromise the open spatial character and attributes of our community, Barnes. 
Thank you for your support,
Pat Newton & Nicole Pound
Barnes' Vision
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We signed the "Save Barn Elms" petition!
# 487:
2:16 pm PST, Nov 19, Eduard Egelie, United Kingdom
good luck - a very worthy cause indeed!
# 486:
2:00 pm PDT, Aug 23, Robert Westling, United Kingdom
# 485:
12:36 pm PDT, Aug 23, Colleen Westling, United Kingdom
# 484:
2:36 am PDT, Jun 26, Sarita Clark, United Kingdom
This is a green space used for sports by local schools. It must absolutely not be sold off for development and lost to community use
# 483:
12:48 am PDT, Jun 8, Tatiana Costa, Brazil
# 482:
6:54 pm PDT, Jun 6, Frida Simms, Virginia
# 481:
9:17 am PDT, May 25, Brian Henderson, Pennsylvania
# 480:
3:26 am PDT, May 15, Name not displayed, United Kingdom
I want Barn Elms to Stay. My sons school uses it, and he loves it, and gains so much from lessons there. there is less and less and green space in London it would be a shame to see it go.
# 479:
5:48 am PDT, Apr 4, Nigel Ansley-Young, United Kingdom
# 478:
7:41 am PDT, Mar 22, Irena Nikoloska, Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic Of
# 477:
1:22 am PST, Feb 19, Anne-marie Jones, United Kingdom
Barn Elms shoudl be for use by the community not private club. As one who grew up at Barn Elms sports centre whislt her father was head groundsman, the site is unique and a great community resource in the pressured urban environment. Fund improvemtns from existing resources not by selling off precious green sapce
# 476:
11:27 am PST, Feb 16, Lynda Harding, United Kingdom
# 475:
2:44 pm PST, Jan 9, Mervi Rantala, Finland
# 474:
5:06 pm PST, Dec 29, Jennifer Gardner, Florida
# 473:
3:17 am PST, Nov 5, Cheryl Fielding, United Kingdom
THE FACT THAT SELLING OFF BARN ELMS PLAYING FIELDS BY THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATES IS UNTHINKABLE AND QUESTIONS SHOULD BE RAISED AT WESTMINISTER - HOW COULD NICK CLEGG SUPPORT THIS ACT OF VADALISM. ALL GREEN SPACES SHOULD BE CHERISHED, NONE MORE SO THAN ONE SO CLOSE TO LONDON. I WOULD SUPPORT ANY ACTION, INCLUDING LEGAL CHALLENGES, TO STOP THE SALE OF THIS PLAYING FIELD.

CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE, HEALTHY, ENGAGED, HAPPY CHILDREN MUST BE THE IDEAL THAT WE ALL DESIRE AND ENDEAVOUR TO NURTURE. GREEN SPACES ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE FORMULA TO HELP TODAY'S CHILDREN AND THE FUTURE GENERATIONS.

# 472:
6:35 am PST, Nov 3, Bernard O'Keeffe, United Kingdom
# 471:
12:17 pm PST, Nov 2, Name not displayed, United Kingdom
I played football there as a school boy in the 1960s, and watched my sons play there this last decade. It is a wonderful, wild, wide open, sporting space - it must not be lost to ordinary people
# 470:
8:28 am PDT, Oct 23, Rachel Gilliam, Florida
# 469:
3:01 am PDT, Oct 17, M Brady, United Kingdom
I use the gym at Barn Elms and realise how popular it is especially for football at weekends. We need this green space desparately.
# 468:
2:38 pm PDT, Oct 13, Vivien Jarvis, United Kingdom
Barn Elms is used by lots of local schools and is a crucial community athletics and sports facility especially for our children. This facility provides much needed space and is partly what makes this area of London special. As the host city for the 2012 Olympics it is imperative we retain these sports/ athletics sites.
# 467:
6:22 am PDT, Oct 12, Nicky Martin, United Kingdom
# 466:
10:53 pm PDT, Sep 25, Janet Norton, United Kingdom
Its green open space, where children can train in sport and play team games. Its close to the river and it would be sad to have to walk through yet more developed area to enjoy a walk. We need these open spaces it helps de stress the already stressful times in which we live.
# 465:
1:06 am PDT, Sep 25, Judith Buchanan, United Kingdom
Barn Elms is a great place to do interval training around a proper track. These facilities should be preserved for the commuity to enable amateur athletes to train and compete
# 464:
8:59 am PDT, Sep 22, Phillip Taylor, United Kingdom
I do not want to see this piece of land developed in the way suggested and I would like to see Richmond Council treating the Council Tax and Income Tax payers with a bit more consideration.

I would like to see much more whole-hearted support for the Olympic Games with the expansion of sporting facilities throughout London and the South East to cater for the needs of young people in particular.

# 463:
5:26 am PDT, Sep 21, Simos Tarabatzis, Greece
# 462:
1:23 am PDT, Sep 17, Neil McEachran, United Kingdom
# 461:
10:09 am PDT, Sep 15, Mark Mackintosh, United Kingdom
For a runner this area provides a great connection between the river, other Barnes open spaces and Richmond Park. It provides an opportunity to vary my training by enabling me to mix track with the off-road of the River.

Multiuse area would just add enormously to the uses listed above. There are too few public running tracks around.

# 460:
9:43 am PDT, Sep 15, Nicola Spooner, United Kingdom
My whole family use the area for running, football, blackberry picking and walking. I believe it is essential to keep the open green space to give us flood protection, to creat a buffer zone for the wetlands centre and to fight child obesity - we need them to play sport and feed the next olympic squad.
# 459:
2:49 am PDT, Sep 10, Anna Mary Young, United Kingdom
I grew up in the area and am a Barn Elms product!! I learnt to row at Barn Elms as teenager at a timewhen rowing was unsexy and only for toffs. At Barn Elms privately educated kids rowed in teams with others in state schools and who lived in high rise council accommodation. Barn Elms did much to break down the social barriers that the financial divide can put up. In addition, at that time, rowing for girls was not really available at the Putney clubs. Training was built around a schookids timetable (i.e. straight after school not late into the evening) and we went away for regattas at weekends, camping out and getting our first taste of independence. From my peers alone we produced one olympic gold medallist and several subsequent members of the National Rowing Squad. I went on to represent my university at rowing. I realise that current debate is more about the athletics facilities but I use my experience at Barn Elms as an illustration that it is a unique facility offering true "Sport for All" - an old adage that seems to have gone west in recent years. I hope that with an upgrade of the athletics facilities, other sports may enjoy the success that we had from our rowing squad. Its ability to allow schoolkids both private and state educated to try out sports not available at school is irreplaceable. Once gone it will be lost forever.

A multi-use games area would provide much needed area for less well-represented sports such as basketball and netball and ? even handball??! (I believe this is an Olympic Sport in 2012). We have the opportunity to create a really unique one-stop "sports for all" facility with the inclusion of facilities for multiple sports which would be unmatched elsewhere in London or the South East. We should also be catering for disabled sportsmen and women as part of a sports for all ethos.

# 458:
11:00 am PDT, Sep 6, Name not displayed, Pennsylvania
# 457:
7:40 am PDT, Sep 4, Henrik Woergaard, United Kingdom
# 456:
3:10 am PDT, Aug 30, Name not displayed, United Kingdom
The barn Elms playing Fields area is an oasis of calm and open space in an increasingly over developed part of London. The chance to walk/run/play sport so close to other facilities without feeling that one is in danger from traffic or overlooked from peoples flats and houses is an absoloute joy.
# 455:
8:05 am PDT, Aug 29, Nia Rosser, United Kingdom
My family and I are regular users of Barn Elms, its an amazing place to take the family to get some exercise and fresh air. If this is gone, where will the children be able to go? Not everyone can afford to join a tennis club or a gym especially if you have children.
# 454:
3:00 am PDT, Aug 20, Philip Swift, United Kingdom
As an ex-pupil of Holland Park School, I have fond memories of going to Barn Elms playing fields for our PE lessons. Given that a third of the site of Holland Park School is itself about to be sold to developers, the loss of a large part of Barn Elms to - surprise, surprise - private developers would even further decrease the free spaces in which children can play in London.
# 453:
7:27 am PDT, Aug 17, Glenn Aitken, United Kingdom
Great sports ground, perfect for familys and training. The main problem with UK athletics is the lack of facilities for beginners, why would you ever want to make it private and out of the reach of the general public. Well done. NOT

A multitude of sports training

# 452:
9:56 am PDT, Aug 11, Sherri Bessire, Texas
# 451:
5:00 am PDT, Aug 6, Name not displayed, United Kingdom
I regularly walk by and through the Barn Elms site. In my opinion the Council should be working to find ways in which it can encourage more people to use the sports fields, not selling it to a private club.

The Council may be incapable of running sports facilities well, but it should ensure that the facilities are available for all.

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