Protecting Verdin Park
Northwich Town Council is pursuing a proposal to use part of Verdin Park for NHS staff parking. Following the September 2026 council meeting, the proposal has moved into a formal statutory consultation process, which is expected to include the chance for residents to have their say.
Where things stand now
The proposal has entered a formal consultation stage
Northwich Town Council has voted to begin the statutory consultation process for the proposed lease of part of Verdin Park for staff parking associated with Victoria Infirmary — the process required under section 127 of the Local Government Act 1972 before a parish or town council can dispose of land.
The council has not approved the lease or the construction of a car park. Its own September report states that no binding lease, licence, development agreement or works agreement should be entered into until consultation has concluded, objections have been considered and final terms approved.
This matters because Verdin Park is public parkland, gifted to the people of Northwich in the 1880s. Changing its use is not the same as dealing with an ordinary piece of council-owned land — and the council's own report to members noted that questions about the land's legal protections still need to be resolved before any final decision.
No part of Verdin Park has yet been approved for conversion into a car park.
What changed at the September council meeting?
The proposal is still alive, but the route has changed
Following a public engagement event held by the Trust, legal questions were raised about the status of the land and the process required to change its use. The Council's own legal advisers, Trowers & Hamlins — whose advice was concurred with by Cheshire West and Chester Council — confirmed that a lease of Verdin Park would be a disposal of land requiring the correct statutory process before any binding agreement.
At the meeting on 7 September, councillors voted to authorise that statutory process rather than approve a lease. In discussion, councillors raised a number of concerns, including: the level of detail the Trust had provided about other parking options it had considered; whether the scheme met the requirements around active travel; the mix of on-site and off-site NHS staff the car park would actually serve; and the cost of the scheme, reported at over £1 million. Members also discussed potential alternatives, including relocating the phlebotomy service currently provided at the Infirmary by North Midlands and Cheshire Pathology Services, part of a different NHS trust, University Hospitals of North Midlands, to reduce parking demand.
This account of the discussion reflects Friends of Verdin Park's understanding of the meeting. We will correct this page if it differs from the official minutes once they are published.
The Trust's proposal has not been withdrawn or rejected. As the Council's own report to members put it, the vote was “to authorise consultation — not to approve the lease itself.”
What happens next?
The statutory consultation
The next stage is the statutory consultation itself. Before any disposal of public open space, Northwich Town Council must advertise its intention in a local newspaper for two consecutive weeks and consider any objections received — in addition to, not instead of, the public engagement event the Trust already held.
Once the council publishes the formal notice, Friends of Verdin Park will publish it here together with a plain-English explanation of how to respond. Until those documents are available, we will not speculate about exact dates.
A final lease can only be agreed after the consultation has concluded, an independent valuation has been obtained, and the council has considered planning, ecology and heritage matters — followed by a further decision of the Council.
Who is the proposed car park for?
The proposal is for parking connected with Victoria Infirmary, for use by NHS staff Monday to Friday. The Trust's plan makes the same area available to the public, free of charge, at weekends.
That distinction matters. The question is not simply whether Northwich needs hospital parking, but whether public parkland should be used to provide staff parking specifically — and whether reasonable alternatives for staff have been fully explored. The council's report records that the Trust assessed several alternative locations and concluded that none was suitable, principally on grounds of development cost or distance from the infirmary.
Questions that still need answers
What we're still asking
FoVP believes residents should have enough information to judge the proposal properly. Several important questions remain — some raised by FoVP, some raised by councillors themselves at the September meeting.
What alternatives were considered, and what evidence was used to rule them out?
The NHS Trust says it assessed several alternative locations and concluded that none was suitable, principally because of development cost or distance from the infirmary. Councillors required this to be examined before authorising consultation. Friends of Verdin Park believes residents should be able to see what those alternatives were and the evidence used to rule them out before public parkland is considered necessary.
Could the phlebotomy service be relocated to reduce parking demand?
One alternative raised during the September council discussion was whether the outpatient phlebotomy service could operate from another suitable location in Northwich, potentially reducing demand for parking at Victoria Infirmary. The service is run by North Midlands and Cheshire Pathology Services, part of a different NHS trust, University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) — not Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. FoVP has asked UHNM to investigate whether relocation is feasible and submitted an FOI request for its records on the service. No response yet — nothing has been agreed or established as viable.
Which exact statutory power is being used?
The Council's officer report confirms section 127 of the Local Government Act 1972 as the principal provision for the proposed disposal (lease) itself — that is what the September consultation vote concerns. Separately, FoVP has asked Northwich Town Council whether it also intends to rely on section 122 or 126 (appropriation), or another statutory mechanism, at a later stage. That question is unconfirmed and distinct from what the September report recommends. No response yet.
What will the scheme actually cost, and who pays?
The Council's report says an independent valuation and a clear assessment of construction, maintenance, insurance and other costs are needed before any final decision. The scheme has been reported at the meeting as costing in excess of £1 million.
What effect would this have on the park's legal protections?
The Council's own report lists establishing the exact wording and enforceability of a reported 1889 covenant, and whether the land is subject to any statutory trust, among the matters still to be resolved before any final decision.
What role does Cheshire West and Chester Council have?
CWaC's legal team has given advice alongside Northwich Town Council's own solicitors on the disposal question. FoVP continues to ask what CWaC's precise role and involvement in the process is.
Our position
Friends of Verdin Park supports Victoria Infirmary and recognises the importance of appropriate parking for hospital staff.
Our objection is to solving that problem by taking part of an established public park when the case for doing so, and the alternatives considered, have not been demonstrated clearly to the community.
Verdin Park has served Northwich for generations. Once public green space is lost, it is extremely difficult to get it back.
We believe the park should remain a park.
Campaign timeline
How we got here
1887
Verdin Park opens, gifted by the Verdin family for the public use and recreation of the people of Northwich.
Early 2025
Residents learn that part of Verdin Park is being considered for staff parking associated with Victoria Infirmary.
5 November 2025
Friends of Verdin Park formally writes to Northwich Town Council, challenging its legal authority to proceed without following the correct statutory process.
2025–2026
FoVP researches the park's legal history — deeds, covenants, FOI responses and Land Registry records — and questions the alternatives considered for staff parking.
7 September 2026
Northwich Town Council votes to authorise a formal statutory consultation process, rather than proceed straight to a lease.
Next
Public consultation is expected. FoVP will publish the formal documents here as soon as they are available.
The Discovery
“We had no idea this was being discussed.”
In early 2025, information began to emerge that part of Verdin Park was being considered as a site to extend parking provision associated with the nearby hospital. The proposal had not been widely publicised. Most residents — including people who had used the park every single day of their lives — knew nothing about it.
What caused immediate concern was not just the proposal itself. It was the way information had emerged. Questions began to be asked: who had known about this? How long had discussions been taking place? Why had the wider community not been informed sooner?
Conversations started — quietly at first — between dog walkers on morning circuits of the park. Between parents watching children on the play equipment. In local shops and on community social media groups. People who had never previously attended a council meeting or signed a petition found themselves asking the same question:
“Can they actually do this?”
The more people looked into it, the more the answer seemed to depend on a history most residents had not previously needed to think about. Because Verdin Park is not an ordinary piece of council-owned land. It is something quite specific — something gifted to the people of Northwich with a purpose attached.
Robert Verdin, 1887
This statue was paid for by the people of Northwich — a mark of what the family's gift meant to the town.
The history that changed everything
This land was gifted. That matters.
As more residents looked into the background of the park, a picture emerged that many found quietly extraordinary. Verdin Park had not simply been set aside as surplus land. It had been given— by the Verdin family, one of Northwich's most significant Victorian industrial families — as a permanent public amenity for the people of the town.
The park was created at a time when reformers across Britain were arguing that working people deserved access to green space. Streets nearby were densely occupied by workers and their families, many with no private outdoor space. The park was the outdoor space. It was intentionally built for them.
For many residents, learning this history fundamentally changed the nature of the debate. The question was no longer purely about a car park. It became a question about what obligations come with land that was gifted for a specific public purpose — and who has the right to change that purpose.
Verdin Park was not simply a piece of undeveloped land available for future development. It was intentionally created as a permanent public amenity for the people of Northwich.
The Evidence in Maps
The park has been shrinking for decades
These two Ordnance Survey maps — 1908 and 2026 — show what has already happened to the land Robert Verdin gifted to the people of Northwich. The hospital and its car park have already absorbed a substantial portion of the original park. The current proposal would continue that process.
OS maps from 1908 to 1970 show the park boundary and bandstand intact. A 1973 aerial photograph shows the existing car park under construction — the park land was taken, and the bandstand demolished, circa 1970–1973. This is the same pattern now being proposed again.
1908 — The park as gifted
c.1973 — The moment of loss
2026 — What remains
The land proposed for the new car park is the area associated with the Victorian bandstand — gifted to Northwich in 1890, demolished circa 1970–1973 when the existing car park was built. Read the full history →
It is also the only part of the park genuinely suitable for ball games. See the full ball games suitability assessment →
The community that responded
Within weeks, hundreds of residents were involved.
What emerged was not an organised protest movement. It was something quieter and more powerful — a community discovering, one conversation at a time, that they shared something they were not prepared to lose.
People of different ages, different politics, different parts of Northwich found themselves standing on the same side of the same argument. Dog walkers who had never spoken at a public meeting. Parents who had always left council business to someone else. Long-term residents who remembered the park from childhood.
People shared memories. Their first visit as a child. A wedding photograph taken in the park. A daily walk that kept them sane through a difficult year. The view across the lawn that had barely changed in a generation. Small things, individually. Together, something considerable.
Residents signed petitions, attended meetings, contacted their elected representatives and shared information with neighbours and local organisations. Many raised the same point, independently: once green space is given up, it is very rarely recovered.
Voices from the community
I've walked through this park every morning for thirty years. The thought that part of it could just disappear — that's what made me get involved.
— Long-term Northwich resident
My children grew up playing here. My grandchildren play here now. That's not nothing. That's everything.
— Park visitor, Northwich
Once green space is gone, it's gone. You don't get it back. That's why this matters.
— Local resident and campaign supporter
How we were formed
Friends of Verdin Park was the community's answer.
What had started as conversations between neighbours needed somewhere to go. Individual voices needed to become a collective one. Friends of Verdin Park was established to be exactly that — a unified, organised, community voice.
From the start, the aim was not confrontation. It was transparency, accountability and the protection of a valued public asset. Members sought to understand the legal position surrounding the park, the nature of any restrictions affecting the land, and the decision-making processes that had led to the proposal being considered.
The campaign quickly became about more than one parking proposal. It raised broader questions that any community should ask: How should public spaces be managed? How should communities be consulted? What do the current custodians of publicly-gifted land owe to those who come after?
“Once public parkland is lost, it is rarely recovered. We are here to make sure it is not lost at all.”
Our position
What we stand for
These principles have guided the campaign since the beginning. They are not about being against anything. They are about what we are for.
Transparency, not confrontation
We are not opponents of the hospital or of good healthcare. We are asking that decisions about a public asset are made openly, with the community properly informed and involved.
History matters
This land was gifted for public recreation. That intention carries weight. The community deserves an honest conversation about what obligations come with land gifted for public benefit.
Green space has value
Beyond recreation, Verdin Park supports biodiversity, mental wellbeing, urban cooling and flood resilience. At a time when access to nature matters more than ever, its value is increasing — not decreasing.
Find another way
Verdin Park Car Park on Castle Street is already just minutes from the hospital. We believe alternative solutions to parking pressures can and should be explored fully before any irreversible incursion into protected public green space is considered.
Healthcare and green space are not mutually exclusive
Throughout the campaign, supporters have been consistent: we are not opposed to the hospital or unsympathetic to the pressures it faces. We believe that with creativity and commitment, solutions can be found that protect both healthcare provision and public green space. We have never accepted that one must come at the expense of the other.
Why this matters beyond the car park
This isn't just about one proposal.
The campaign has highlighted something many residents already felt but had never had cause to articulate. Public parks are not assets on a balance sheet. They are places that hold memories, support wellbeing and contribute to the character of a town.
Beyond recreation, Verdin Park contributes to biodiversity, urban cooling, flood management and community mental health. Northwich Town Council's own records show that wildflower areas in the park have been expanded in 2024 and 2025 — with council publications encouraging residents to visit the meadow "in its full glory." At a time when the council itself is investing in the park's ecological value, many residents have questioned whether converting part of it to tarmac represents the right direction for Northwich.
The campaign also raised a question of precedent. Many people felt that allowing development within the park — however modest — would make future encroachment easier to justify. The first step is always the hardest to oppose. Which is why it matters so much to oppose it.
Verdin Park, as it should remain — free, open, and green.
The campaign continues. Verdin Park remains open and unchanged today. The Trust's proposal has not been withdrawn, and the statutory consultation process is now underway. The community that came together to defend Verdin Park is still here — organised, informed, and watching.
The story of Friends of Verdin Park is ultimately a story about stewardship.
Each generation inherits public green space from the one before it and has a responsibility to pass it on intact. Join us in honouring that responsibility.