Bid to take over Harpenden leisure grounds

APPROACHES are to be made to the district council to get them to hand over land used by Harpenden residents. A bid to get St Albans council to hand over ownership of a number of leisure sites to Harpenden Town Council (HTC) is to be made after a recent me

APPROACHES are to be made to the district council to get them to hand over land used by Harpenden residents.

A bid to get St Albans council to hand over ownership of a number of leisure sites to Harpenden Town Council (HTC) is to be made after a recent meeting of the town council.

At present HTC leases a number of sites including Riverside, Heath Close and Oakley Road allotments and Lydekker Park and its car park.

As of April 2009, the district council waived any rental that previously had been paid on a number of the sites.

But the leases on all the sites have expired and require renegotiating. At a recent meeting of HTC members voted to seek the permanent devolution of each of the sites to the town council.

HTC Clerk John Bagshaw said: "Lydekker Park and car park are managed by the town council at no cost to the district council. It was originally understood that the income from the car park would offset the cost of maintaining the park. But there is currently a shortfall of around �20,000 a year."

He said it was unlikely that SADC would wish to take on additional costs or liabilities and therefore it was hoped that they would be amenable to the plan.

The three allotment sites are managed through an agreement with the appropriate allotment association.