Ravenhurst Latest

28-11-2006

“Bullying Claim” claim against Oratory Fathers

In their dash to raise millions by selling Ravenhurst Playing Fields in Harborne for housing, the Catholic Fathers of the Oratory on Hagley Road have been accused of intimidation.

Regular readers will recall that we revealed several weeks ago the unholy alliance between the Oratory priests and Wimpey to build on Ravenhurst Playing Fields which are enclosed by the roads of Gillhurst, Ellesboro and Knightlow in Harborne.

It now appears that Church isstarting to flex its muscles by employing contractors to make live difficult for residents who simply want use this wonderful open space as they have for decades.

Residents whose gardens back onto the fields have suddenly found that fences have been erected. There are also new signs stating ‘Access Prohibited' although bizarrely you have to be in the playing fields in order to read them. More menacingly, the locals say that “intimidatory” tactics are now being used against them.

Angela Varley, for example, has used the playing fields since moving to Knightlow Road in 1978. During all of this time she has had unrestricted access to them through a gate in the fence of her back garden.

“My family have used the playing fields for nearly 30 years without any restrictions or anyone preventing us from doing so …. until now”, she said.

For the last few years she has suffered from osteoporosis and walks with the aid of a stick. To enable her to climb the steep bank up to the fields, her retired husband cut some rudimentary stepsso she could continue to walk her dog there.

One morning recently she discovered that the steps had been totally destroyed, preventing her from going into the fields. The wooden risers had been hacked out and thrown into the longest stinging nettles and the horizontal earthen treads dug up.

"I was so upset and disgusted that a Church could have behaved like bully boys trying to intimidate me that I wrote to the Fathers of the Oratory to complain. I have not received a reply - perhaps they are too ashamed! I have taken photographs of the wanton destruction but I am very worried what dirty tactics they are going to use next", she said.