I am writing regarding the recent inquiry to decide if land alongside Foxwell Drive, Northway estate, should be granted ‘town green status’.

I lived on Meaden Hill from the time the houses were completed in the early 1950s to the 1960s. Resident Jane Cox informed the barrister acting for the council that the authority only ever cut the grass. This is correct, it is the residents who use this land for their own activities.

If the council legal team are so sure that the city council maintained this land in the spirit of a recreation facility it would have the previous documentary evidence to prove it, which any council officer could present to the ‘inquiry’. It would hardly need a highly paid barrister to do it for them. I digress, there used to be an Oxford town clerk by the name of Harry Plowman, his name was always on the metal plates erected near designated recreation areas of the city informing residents of local ‘bylaws’ of the recreation grounds. There were no such notices around the land off Foxwell Drive.

The city council, even in the 50s and 60s, would never have allowed residents to do what we did on this land if it was a proper recreation area, e.g. erecting mountainous bonfires every year, making our own cricket pitches, using it as a speed cycle track. The list is a long one. Can anyone see the council allowing those activities in say Bury Knowle Park or Cutteslowe Park?

Today’s letters

No, I didn’t think so. I hope the inquiry reaches the right decision for the right reasons but I won’t hold my breath.

Alan Kerry

Newman Road

Littlemore

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