Green for go at new city park

Jul 18 2007 By Jasbir Authi, Birmingham Mail

THE wraps came off Birmingham's newest park today as the bubbling row over the city's "disappearing" green spaces escalated.

The Lord Mayor , Coun Randal Brew opened Finch Road Park, in Lozells with the help of schoolchildren.

The park has two multi-use games area, football pitches, basketball courts, a teen shelter and an area for younger children.

Pupils from Heathfield Primary School and Mayfield Special School performed a ribbon dance and sang football songs for Coun Brew during the opening ceremony on Monday.

The land had been lying derelict and overgrown for a number of years, and residents and councillors campaigned for it to be some form of community resource.

Yesterday the minister for the West Midlands dismissed as "nonsense" claims that Birmingham's parks are under threat from plans to build new homes.

Liam Byrne said councils would be encouraged to use brownfield sites which had been built on in the past, and land belonging to the public sector.

He said, existing residential communities could benefit from becoming home to more people.

But ministers did not plan to build houses on green spaces.

Mr Byrne (Lab, Birmingham Hodge Hill) said: "The idea of building on parks is utter nonsense."

His comments followed warnings from a Birmingham councillor that public spaces faced erosion "with Government collusion" if the city council was forced to meet UK housing targets.

Coun Peter Douglas Osborn (Con, Weoley Castle) said local authorities would face unbearable pressure to identify land ripe for development.

"It is inevitable that if the Government forces this through, there's no doubt about it - green space is not worth the tree that is growing there."

But Mr Byrne said the Government was giving councils the power to commandeer derelict land belonging to the Armed Forces, rail network and NHS.

"Imaginative plans by local authorities can improve density rather than building on green belt land."

Don't miss tomorrow's Stirrer column where Adrian Goldberg turns the spotlight on Birmingham's neglected parks.