A space we all use. Protected on paper. Now at risk.
For as long as any of us can remember, the open space around our estate has been part of what makes New Bold home. It's where our children learned to ride their bikes. It's where dogs are walked twice a day and neighbours stop to chat in a way they don't on the pavement. It's the green view from our kitchen windows, the place where the seasons actually feel like they're happening, the quiet bit of sky in a borough that has lost a lot of its green over the years.
It is also, on paper, protected. The land is bound by registered Section 106 obligations to which St Helens Council itself is a party. It carries restrictive covenants requiring it to remain "amenity and/or open space" and prohibiting the exclusion of the public. It is designated as Greenway in the Local Plan. The protections have been there, in writing, for over twenty-five years.
We are writing this petition because we don't want to wake up one morning to find the open space fenced off, the access path blocked, and our community told that this is now somebody's private yard. The protections are only as good as the willingness of St Helens Borough Council to enforce them.