"Save our Park" shout residents and MP

12.00.00am GMT Mon 10th Feb 2003

Twickenham Residents Protest Over Park Over 100 local residents gathered in Kneller Gardens Twickenham on Saturday to protest over the threat to the future of the park.

Under council proposals the park would become playing fields for a new secondary school on the site of the disused Mereway allotments and residents would have only restricted access.

MP Vincent Cable joined the protest and attacked the conduct of the council: "either the Conservative administration is grossly incompetent or very sly."

"There has been no explanation of the proposals and no public consultation. I only discovered them by accident when my PA noticed a small council notice high on the tennis courts."

"There is no detail available and anxious residents are unable to get answers to elementary questions like: what will happen to the children's playground and the tennis courts?"

"What are the traffic implications for the highly congested Meadway and the narrow roads in the surrounding area? what will happen to the Mereway day centre for the mentally ill?"

"Residents have only a week left to register objections or they will be assumed to have consented to proposals which they know little about. This is local government at its very worst".