In Whitby, people have become accustomed to the continual news about Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) wanting to reassign some popular green space for housing. Helredale playing field was lost a few years ago to housing, with the explicit condition that it can be given up but Larpool playing field will always remain since that is then the sole free-to-access playing field on the east side of the town. When we then hear that SBC now want to reassign Larpool playing field to be a cemetery extension, to which all local councillors object, only for SBC to continue pushing forward with the idea, it really can’t come as a surprise the strength of feeling in the recent parish poll about not wanting to continue in the same area committee as Scarborough.
So how about we add some facts and figures to how badly Whitby is provided for in terms of green space? Well if we compare against Scarborough and Filey
| Type | Local Standard (ha/1000) | Whitby (ha / 1000) | Whitby Accessible (ha / 1000) | Scarborough (ha / 1000) | Filey (ha / 1000) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural | 2.00 | 1.59 | 1.17 | 4.44 | 6.17 |
| Urban Park | 1.00 | 0.53 | 0.53 | 1.22 | 1.84 |
| Sports | 1.70 | 1.44 | 1.06 | 1.49 | 1.70 |
| Other – Amenity | 0.55 | 0.73 | 0.73 | 1.26 | 0.35 |
| Other – Green Corridors | 0.00 | 0.34 | 0.22 | 0.19 | 0.05 |
| Other – Cemeteries | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.16 | 0.00 |
| TOTAL | 5.25 | 4.63 | 3.71 | 8.77 | 10.12 |
and we see that Whitby is not meeting the SBC local standard, as well as significantly behind both Scarborough and Filey, in “natural”, “urban park” and “sports” green space. The SBC local standard doesn’t take into account accessibility, but we have done the calculations for them; when we allow for the fact that much of Whitby’s “natural” and “sports” green space is not what one could term accessible, then Whitby falls further behind the local standard!
You can read more details about the current state, and direction of travel, in our Green Space page.
Needless to say, this has to change! SBC performed an audit of green space in 2014 and came to some of the same conclusions but have never followed through on its findings. Our green space has to be protected and expanded. What do you think? How can we halt the decline? Where particularly do we need green space in our town?
