Wicksteed Park appears to be considering building on the green space at the top of the park (previously the old golf course area). 

The plan on the KBC website sets out the potential for building up to 110 houses on the green space at the top of the park (east of Sussex Road and Kent Place).

This potential development would be a sad loss of park land, and is not in keeping with the vision set out by Charles Wicksteed after WW1, when he aimed to create an open space for the public to spend leisure time. At the time the park was surrounded by significantly more green land.

The full plan can be found at: tinyurl.com/as2a9dpj

The plan makes the following claim:

"site3.8 Policy KET10 seeks to allocate 1.07 ha of land at Wicksteed Park on the basis that 4.4 hectares of land to the south-east of the parkland will be incorporated into this public open space. However, there is scope to allocate a larger parcel of land (circa 3 – 3.5 ha for 100 – 110 dwellings) whereby the parkland will still increase in overall scale without any harm to the historic core of the Park. It would however offer significantly higher reinvestment opportunities for the Park. This would benefit the whole of the parkland, proposed rejuvenation works and ecological and biodiversity enhancements for parts of the retained land and links to the green corridor/ecological areas to the south."

These claims are very concerning. Building dwellings over green land will only be detrimental to the parkland and wildlife.

In addition, they claim that the land in question is of poor quality and is not used. This is not the case. This used to be a very pleasant area until the park allowed it to fall into disrepair, and decided to needlessly dump park waste near the area. Despite this, this area is still always full of families enjoying games and picnics throughout the warmer months and has countless walkers pass through every day. Furthermore, the "wilder" areas of the field are a valuable haven for wildlife, which Kettering (and the rest of the world!) has lost so much of. 

In addition, another area of consideration is the potential connection of this development to Sussex Road. This residential area already has poor traffic flow and infrastructure, particularly where it joins onto Pytchley road. The area simply cannot support potentially hundreds more cars. This will cause serious delays, stress and noise. It will also likely result in the devaluing of many properties. 

Therefore, to summarise, this petition hopes to:

• Get the park trust to be honest and clear about exactly what they are planning to do (in light of recent claims re. a potential gated village for over 55s - see update). 
• Protect the land from development.
• Extend the Grade II Parks and Garden Listing to cover the proposed area, so that it will be protected in future. 

Please help to support us and share this petition with anyone who may be able to help.

This is only the latest in a series of declines over recent years. Please help us stop this poor management and misuse of green space.  

*Update* on 25/03/21 the park have admitted that they do have intentions to develop this site, but have now proposed a gated community for people over 55. At this stage, it is unclear exactly what this will involve or how much park land it will cover, as it is different to the plans on the KBC website. (See update below for more info).