RUDHEATH Parish Council is seeking legal advice after it was served a letter stating it has until the end of the year to vacate St John’s Playfields Fields at Griffiths Park.

Campaigners are continuing to fight against a planning application which has been submitted to Cheshire West and Chester Council by HBV Northwich Limited and Griffiths Park Land Limited to build 46 ‘affordable’ homes and a three-storey, 66-bed care home on the playing fields.

And the latest blow to the protest means the site would need to be vacated by the parish council by the end of December this year, meaning it would no longer be able to maintain it.

Residents have been fighting against the development plans, saying the site is a much-needed community asset, offering residents open space to play sports, walk their dog, meet up with friends or enjoy the park with children.

Rudheath Parish Council also recently applied to Cheshire West and Chester’s planning department for the site to be listed as an Asset of Community Value – which was approved in February and means the fields ‘further community social well-being or interests and is likely to do so in the future’.

A decision notice reads: “On the evidence provided it is the opinion of the local authority that St Johns’ Playing Field, Griffiths Park, Middlewich Road, Rudheath, Northwich ,meets the definition of an Asset of Community Value in that the actual current use of the land is not an ancillary use; it furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community and it is realistic to think that there can continue to be non-ancillary use of the land which will further the social wellbeing or social interests of the community.”

Squire Patton Boggs, on behalf of Griffiths Park Land Limited, has now sent a letter to Rudheath Parish Council giving it notice to vacate the site by December 31, 2023, under the terms of a tenancy.

The parish council has confirmed it is now seeking legal advice.

A letter submitted by planning consultants Avison Young in support of the development said: “The high-quality housing will contribute towards an identified need for affordable dwellings within the local authority and will be supported by appropriate car parking and landscaping.”

To view or comment on the application visit the council’s planning portal here and search for 22/04436/FUL.