A PUBLIC inquiry into the future of a piece of land crucial to Witney’s proposed Cogges Link Road is costing campaigners up to £30,000.

Owen Edwards wants Witney Meadows Country Park, in Farm Hill Lane, to be awarded Town Green status, which would protect it from the developers.

He has the backing of campaign group Witney First, along with the Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

The groups are asking for the public to help fund the legal fight that is estimated to cost between £20,000 and £30,000.

Town Green status would protect the land from any development and could potentially scupper the £9.5m scheme to build a link road between the town and Cogges to relieve traffic congestion.

Oxfordshire County Council’s highways department, which has planning permission to use the country park to build the road, and landowner Witney Town Council have both objected.

Mr Edwards, who lives in Witney, must persuade inspector Charles Mynors that the land has been freely available for public leisure and recreation for the past 20 years.

County Highways and the town council say people have only been able to use the land with the permission of the landowner.

The public inquiry is expected to last until tomorrow.