2 March 2006 - Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has joined the fight to prevent a housing development destroying a Havant nature reserve – and yet another school playing field.

The Hampshire Council-owned site, adjacent to Fairfield Road , currently forms a nature reserve maintained by Fairfield Primary School and part of the playing fields used by nearby Warblington School .

But it has been earmarked for housing development by Havant Council, despite local opposition. The planned development would see the playing fields reduced by a third and the complete destruction of the nature reserve.

Dr Lucas, Hampshire’s Green Party MEP, said: “With levels of childhood obesity spiraling out of control, due in part to schoolchildren’s increasingly sedentary lifestyles, it is madness to sell off school playing fields.

“Building housing on the Warblington Playing Fields site will have a direct impact on the standard of education offered at both schools and the lost green space will have a negative effect on the local community as a whole. New housing construction will place a greater drain on already scarce community facilities and natural resources – and a proposed new road layout with a new junction just feet away from one of the busiest level crossings in the country.”

The MEP has joined local Green Party members, conservationists and community activists in calling on Havant Council to reverse its decision and re-designate the site as protected green space. She will meet local campaigners during her visit to the site on Friday.

Portsmouth and South-East Hampshire Green party spokesperson Tim Dawes, who will be conducting the site visit, added: “Despite assurances from the Government that it would halt the sale of school playing fields, they are being sold off all over the country – and Hampshire leads the way nationally, with 42 playing fields either sold off or under threat.

“This is madness. Once developed, these green lungs within our town centres cannot easily be replaced. The few remaining urban green spaces in crowded south Hampshire, especially those already in public ownership, must be protected and preserved for future generations.”

ENDS