STOLEN LAND

Brief History of St Matthew's Piece in Petersfield Ward, Cambridge, and of the Howard Mallett Centre.

• 1898 Common land is drained, levelled and opened to the public as St Matthew’s Piece. It is given to the residents as open space 'for ever'. (Cambridge Daily News article, 24.6.1898) St Matthew's Piece extends from Abbey Walk to New Street. (old maps)
• 1964 Cambridge Education Committee decides that St Matthew's Piece is to be the site of the proposed Central Youth Club – later called the Howard Mallett Centre. (Council Minutes and Cambridge News article, 15.7.64)
• 1965 Letter from City Architect to Mr Pease (of County Council?), dated 19.2.65, justifying building the Youth Club on land zoned for public open space by saying that "It is a use which may be associated with, and complementary to, an urban public open space". An undertaking that "an equivalent area of public open space... will be made available" was not satisfactorily carried out. Only a very small area of land, about 0.1ha, was added to what remained of the park to compensate for the loss of 0.45 ha.
• 1968 Howard Mallett Youth Centre opened. (Cambridge News article 11.3.68) Local residents welcome this new facility for young people. (Oral testimony of older residents)
• 1974 Responsibility for the Howard Mallett Centre is transferred from City Council to County Council along with education and Cambridge schools.
• 1996 Howard Mallett Centre now 'in care of' Parkside Community College. Building is not properly maintained or, even, cleaned. Bookings are turned away and contracts are terminated. Eventually the Centre is closed because it "is in poor condition and is little used"! (planning application for change of use)
• 1998 Building leased by County Council to Dawe Media Ltd for use as a Multi-media centre. Local residents struggle to establish promised 'part community access' but this is curtailed by Dawe Media to that which is "in keeping with the overall project", e.g. no ball games in the large sports hall.
• 2000 Cambridge Regional College mobile classrooms are removed from land to the east of the building and the area returned to grass. But children who start to play on this space, which should be "available and freely accessible to the public at all times" (Condition of planning permission), are turned away and intimidatory signs put up.
• 2005 Dawe Media take advantage of break clause in lease agreement and terminate lease. County Council currently in talks with an organisation called Citylife who propose to use the building for teaching entrepreneurship and providing workspace for Cambridge's unemployed – a use which, in our opinion, is very far removed from one which relates to, and is complementary to, a public open space.