The battle for Duncan Matheson Playing Fields has been ongoing for a number of years, with over 4,000 residents signing petitions to save the green space and demos outside Salford Civic Centre.*
Basically, a large part of the thirty acre land is owned by the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Manchester, also known as the charity The Greater Manchester Trust for Recreation, while a smaller portion, 7.7acres, is owned by Salford City Council.
A few years ago, there were proposals by Barratt North West to build over five hundred properties on all the land, but after opposition from local residents who wanted to preserve the playing fields for what they were originally intended, as a recreation and sports facility, these were quietly dropped.
While Salford Council still has its share of the land earmarked for the development of fifty houses, the rest of the fields have seen Swinton Football Club in negotiations with the charity to bring the fields back into proper use.
Currently, lockdown permitting, a total of 13 teams play on Duncan Matheson with four of them coming from Monton Sports JFC. Swinton FC has been improving the facilities at the site but is still negotiating for a three year lease with the charity, when it needs a lease of around 25 years in order to apply for external funding for ground improvements.
"As a residents group, we have no control over the use of the fields or the sourcing of external funding, this can only be done by a sporting group such as Swinton FC, either on their own or with cooperation with other clubs" says Steve Healey from the Save Duncan Matheson Playing Fields campaign "All we can do is give encouragement to those willing to restore recreation and sporting facilities on Duncan Matheson Playing Fields."
As such, the Save Duncan Matheson Playing Fields campaign states that "This is not the end, it could be just the beginning...".
* For a full background see previous Salford Star articles – click here and click here and click here
For more information see the Save Duncan Matheson Playing Fields Facebook site – click here
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