Village green bid will go to public inquiry

May 21 2008 The Journal

PLANS to register land as a village green in an effort to scupper a £5m supermarket plan are to be heard at a public inquiry in July.

But the application for the seafront Braid at Amble, Northumberland, from a group of people living in nearby Rivergreen, will still be determined by registration authority Northumberland County Council.

The neighbours applied to the county hoping green status would derail Northumberland Estates’ plans for a 2,787sq m store and 49 houses next to the Braid, with an access road on the edge of the open land.

There have been objections to the village green proposal on procedural grounds from joint land owners the county council, Alnwick District Council and the Duke of Northumberland’s Estates, as well as two individuals.

The county council now says there will be a public inquiry. It will begin at Amble’s Fourways 2 building on July 15 and is due to last four days. The inquiry inspector will not determine the issue but make a recommendation to the county council’s rights of way committee.

Residents had hoped it could be determined without a public inquiry.

Campaign leader Stan Gater said: “Our solicitor wrote and suggested that we could have an informal hearing with the people who are objecting to see if there was any way forward and it would seem that they are not going to go that way.”

The neighbours believe the supermarket cannot be built, even if granted permission, until their application is determined. But Northumberland Estates insists its plans, which include 204 parking spaces, will proceed regardless of the green application. Its director of planning Colin Barnes said: “Our position is that it is a separate process from the planning application and at the moment we are continuing to progress things with the council on the planning application side – and making progress.

“The outcome of the village green which is being opposed by Northumberland council, Alnwick district and ourselves will take its course and we can predict the outcome of that, but that does not prevent the development proposals going forward.”

The store application is in limbo, the district council having said it has insufficient information to decide.

The Estates is submitting more and hopes its application will be heard in late summer. The plan has attracted opposition on a number of grounds.