Meadow looks set to get Town Green status (From Oxford Mail)

Meadow looks set to get Town Green status

5:00pm Tuesday 7th April 2009 in Oxford By Andrew Ffrench

CAMPAIGNERS were celebrating yesterday after Oxfordshire County Council endorsed a planning inspector’s recommendation that Warneford Meadow in Oxford should be granted Town Green status.

In May last year, a public inquiry was held into whether the 18-acre site in Headington should be declared a Town Green.

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, which owns the land, wanted to sell it for development.

But Town Green status would prohibit development on the site and on Monday the council’s planning and regulation committee backed the decision a planning inspector made in October.

County Hall spokesman Owen Morton last night confirmed councillors had accepted the inspector’s recommendation.

The council is the registration authority for Town Greens and has to give its approval on planning grounds before the protected status can be granted.

Mother-of-two Sietske Boeles, 55, of Southfield Road, East Oxford, said the trust could appeal against the decision and request a judicial review in the High Court.

She added: “We’re delighted the councillors have backed the planning inspector’s decision.

“The trust now has three months to decide whether or not to appeal.

“Residents will be staging a celebration on the meadow on the evening of May 1, when we will remind people that Warneford Meadow was bought by Warneford Hospital in 1920 to protect it from development and to provide an open-air environment for its mental-health patients.

“It’s still used today by patients.”

At the inquiry, campaigners gave evidence to show local residents had used the meadow for recreation for at least 20 years.

They raised almost £40,000 to pay for the cost of being legally represented at the hearing.

The health trust had applied for planning permission to develop the site for student accommodation and other housing before the application was withdrawn.

Trust spokesman Christian Mayr said: “We have only just heard the news and will be reporting this to our board of directors, who meet at the end of the month. The board will then decide what, if any, action may be taken.”

Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, which advised the campaigners and donated £500 towards their costs, added: “This is a great victory for the Friends of Warneford Meadow and shows how persistence pays.

“It was a two-and-a-half year battle, but now they have secured the land for recreation and enjoyment by the public, and as a haven for wildlife.”

Land can be registered as a Town Green if it has been used by local people for “lawful sports and pastimes” for 20 years, freely and openly.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk