Thanks to everyone who has joined the discussion, shared information and offered to help over the past few days. The response has made very clear how much the Lower Field and wider site mean to people in Totnes and beyond.
A small organising group met today to bring together what we know so far and agree how to move forward.
Our aim is to work towards the best possible outcome for the community. We want to be ambitious, but also careful not to rush into a particular solution before we understand the facts and the options available to us.
*What we’re looking into*
We now have several strands of work moving forward in parallel:
* *Public access and rights of way* – looking at the long history of people walking through and using the site, and what routes may exist to protect access formally.
* *Planning and protection of green space* – exploring whether stronger protection for green space, recreation and public access can be secured through the planning policies, legal documents and formal agreements governing the site.
* *Community ownership and future options* – exploring whether there could be a realistic route to some or all of the site remaining in community hands, including the role of its Asset of Community Value status and emerging community right-to-buy legislation.
* *The history of the land* – going back through archives, deeds and previous campaigns to make sure we have the fullest possible picture, including around the disposal process and previous consultations.
* *Engagement with decision-makers* – building constructive relationships with Keviccs, Education South West, local councillors, our MP and others who could help shape what happens next.
There are already people with experience in campaigning, planning, land and community ownership, rights of way, law, communications and local government working on these areas, with further expert advice being sought.
If you have particular professional expertise or practical skills that could help, please get in touch. You can email us at friendsoflowerfield@gmail.com or drop a message in the Discussion group. We are already receiving lots of generous offers, so we may not be able to involve everyone in the core organising group, but there will be plenty of ways to contribute as the work develops.
*How we’re going to work*
A lot of information is flying around, and one of our priorities is making sure the campaign remains factual, organised and transparent.
We’re therefore setting up clear workstreams, shared research and a regular organisers’ meeting, with periodic updates back to the wider community. The core organising group will remain relatively small so that we can work effectively, but we will draw on the much wider pool of knowledge, experience and practical help across the community as different needs arise.
We’re also building a simple website, which will become the main home for campaign updates, evidence and ways to get involved. The WhatsApp community will remain an important place for discussion, but you shouldn’t need to follow every message to know what’s happening, and it gets around the issue of newcomers not being able to see previous posts.
On that note, we’re going to delete the ‘Updates’ thread and put all announcements in future in the Announcements tab of the community. We’re also going to change the name to Friends of Lower Field Campaign.
*How you can help*
One of our most important next steps is to build a strong evidence base showing how the site has been used by the community, both now and over many years.
We’re building an evidence-gathering tool on the website which will help us collect information in a structured way. That evidence could support several strands of the campaign, including work on rights of way, planning and green-space protection, and demonstrating the site's long history of community use.
We’ll share the link as soon as it’s ready. In the meantime, please start thinking about your own connection with the site and digging out anything that might help, including:
* Old photographs or videos showing community use (old class Facebook groups could be great for this, although note that images from actual school days will not be of use, it needs to be informal use)
* Walking or running records, such as Strava routes
* Memories of when, where and how you’ve used the site and what it means to you
* Information about sports, clubs, events or other recreation or social activities that have taken place there
* Knowledge or documents from previous campaigns or decisions about the land.
You can email any of this to us at friendsoflowerfield@gmail.com.
As you know, there are plans for a community gathering and celebration of the space on *Saturday September 19th from 11am*. We'll be there and we'd love to see you there too.
And please continue to talk about this with others and invite them to join this community and show their support, however far afield they might be!
This latest phase of the campaign is only a few days old, but it builds on many years of work by local people who have fought to protect this space and keep it accessible to the whole community. We’ve taken big strides this week, but we want to take the time to establish the facts as they currently stand, preserve our options and build the strongest possible case for the Lower Field to have a future that continues to serve the community.