Taking action to save a village playing field

Stradishall is a small village set in the beautiful west Suffolk countryside and home to around 500 people. Like many Parish Councils they were working hard to look after the village but were faced with a church in need of repair and demolishing an old village hall.

So when the owner of the village playing field said they wanted to dispose of the land to a developer, the Parish Council and villagers refused to lose another community asset.

The village rallied together to run a huge community fundraising campaign. Led by the Parish Council, the campaign raised enough money to purchase the playing field land through a mix of individual donations and crowdfunding. The field was saved and in doing so the community was brought closer together, fostering a great sense of local pride.

The Parish Clerk, said: "The fact that local residents were willing to make a financial contribution to our playing field shows just how much they value this green space, and how important it is to village life."

After securing the land the Parish Council entered into a Deed of Dedication with Fields in Trust to legally protect the playing field as a public open space forever.