Council bosses did not want to improve the state of a popular community field because they feared scuppering a controversial Newcastle housing development, emails have revealed.
It has emerged that civic centre officials were against cutting the grass more regularly at a contentious site in the outer west of the city because they wanted to discourage locals from using the public land more often. The playing field next to the West Denton Community Centre has been at the centre of a building saga over recent years, with campaigners having pleaded with Newcastle City Council to keep the site as open space that could be used by children, football teams, and dog walkers.
Despite the protests, plans from Tolent and Karbon Homes were approved this January for 45 houses to be built on the Hillhead Road site and construction work has now begun. But council emails obtained by local residents via a Freedom of Information request now show that local authority bosses did not want locals using the field, fearing that it would strengthen arguments against the housing estate.
