Campaigners bitter over plight of green

May 14 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

VILLAGERS who fought a three-year battle to save a rare green space are “disillusioned and disappointed” by a recommendation from a government inspector.

After a public inquiry last January, inspector Martin Carter proposed rejecting an application to award village green status to the patch of land off Front Street in Witton Gilbert, near Durham.

The application by retired detective Bill Jarvis, 73, of Falkous Terrace, to have the land at the end of his street designated was supported by local MP Roberta Blackman-Woods.

But despite her representations – and evidence from grandfathers Jim McManners and James Vickers that their children and grandchildren had played on the green, and 21-year-old villager Christopher Taylor, who told the hearing he used to play there as a child – the inspector has recommended the application be rejected.

Mr Carter’s recommendation will be passed to the licensing committee of Durham County Council, which has the final say, at a meeting this summer.

Last night Ms Blackman-Woods stressed she would continue to support the villagers’ battle, saying: “I was very pleased to support the residents’ application to have the green space designated as a village green.

“If the report contains recommendations which the local residents are unhappy with, I will certainly do what I can to assist them in making representations to the council committee who will make the final decision.” Durham City Council, which owns the land, wants to sell it for housing. Part of the city council’s argument was that the land was too dangerous for children to play on before a village bypass was built in 1998.

Before that, the A691 Consett to Durham road passed through Witton Gilbert next to the plot.

One villager who has campaigned for three years in favour of a village green, Philip Williams, 71, a retired financial adviser, of Front Street, said: “I am very disillusioned and disappointed by this decision and about so-called democracy.

“Evidence was heard at the hearing that the land was used by the public prior to the bypass being built.

“If nothing else, we have the satisfaction of knowing we halted development for three years on a valuable plot of green space.”

In November 2005, Durham City Council angered local people by building a fence around the land after their application for village green status.

Eight months later, council workmen arrived to remove it, after a landmark court ruling that the building of a fence around a plot of land under dispute in Oxford had no bearing on village green status.