A potential layout of how a new town park could look for Northallerton has been unveiled to councillors.
The concept has been drawn up to give people an idea of how the fields around the former Northallerton College – based at the old Grammar School site – could be developed if moves to preserve it for the town work out.
Members of Northallerton Town Council were shown the outline at their meeting this week. Mayor Councillor Philip Eames said later: “The former Northallerton College closed more than two years ago and since then the playing fields have been unused.
"The town council is keen for the fields to be retained as a green space that is accessible to the public and we have produced an interesting image of what the fields might look like as a public park, that I hope will attract the interest in the town.”
The image will be on display at the eco festival being held in Northallerton Town Hall on October 28 from 11am to 4pm.
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North Yorkshire Councillor Caroline Dickinson told members the plans for the former Northallerton College are still awaiting updates from the Department for Education. The building was left empty after the school was moved onto the former Allertonshire site at the other end of the town on Stokesley Road.
North Yorkshire Council applied to the DfE to transform the building into a specialist centre for children with social, emotional and mental health needs. The authority believes up to 350 specialist places are required across the county, with particular need in the Hambleton and Richmondshire areas.
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North Yorkshire has made an application to the Special Free School building programme revealed by the government last year. Local campaigners have been pressing for the school and the playing fields to be preserved, particularly for the fields to be turned into a public park for the town. A petition was launched and Northallerton Town Council had the fields registered as an asset of community value through the former Hambleton Council.
This means that the fields cannot be sold off without giving the local community or council the chance to buy it. The concern since the school was moved was that the site could be sold off for housing.
The concept includes a turf roofed pavilion surrounded by a mown grass circle, with native woodland and wildflower meadow.
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