As revealed in the Mercury last month residents at Vivis Park claimed the area had been neglected for three years, it was overgrown with grass 2ft high, was unusable as a play area for children and was fast becoming a dog toilet because owners could not find the mess their pets had left.

The delay in the transfer from Persimmon Homes to the district council was said to have been caused by a “discrepancy” between the plan to be included in the adoption documents and the Land Registry official plan.

Now Ryedale Council officers are treating the matter as a priority and those issues have been resolved, Pickering Town Council heard this week.

In a letter to the council, Ryedale’s solicitor, Anthony Winship, said the transfer was “progressing” and staff were checking the site to see what work the developer needed to do before the local authority takes it on.

He said: “Obviously the council would be advised not to take on the land unless it complies with the agreed landscaping and planting scheme.”

And in a further letter to the town council Persimmon has admitted the transfer is “long overdue” and says it is arranging for outstanding maintenance to be done “with a view to seeking the earliest possible handover of the area”.

The news has been welcomed by the town council and by Cllr Natalie Warriner, who chairs Pickering’s Community Events Group.

She said she was discussing the possibility for forming a partnership involving the group and the district and town councils to look after the site once the formal transfer was completed. She also hoped the dog warden could deal with indiscriminate dog fouling.

But Cllr Warriner said: “It would be a much more effective group if people living in the area would become Friends of Vivis Park and join us in our partnership.”

Anyone willing to join a Friends group is invited to meet at the park at the bottom of Kingfisher Drive on Friday September 4 at 6pm or the following day at 10am if it is raining.



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