The long legal battle over the future of the Trap Grounds appears to be over. Thousands of pounds in legal fees have been spent by both sides. So where are we now? The answer is: right back where we started.

The ball has been lobbed straight back into the court of Oxfordshire County Council where it was three years ago. The Law Lords have stopped short of advising the county council whether it should decide in favour of an application to register the land as a village green or not.

We suspect that the county council was rather hoping they would take the decision for it because it will be damned if it agrees to designate the land a green and damned if it does not.

There is a strong body of opinion against the land being a town green, not least from the county council's own St Philip and St James School and council road safety staff. They would love to see a road across the Trap Grounds to make access safer and allow the school to reach its full capacity of pupils.

The city council meanwhile would like to see the land used for social housing.

County councillors, of course, will have to look at the case solely on its merits. In other words, they will have to put to one side all the arguments about access, road safety and housing and concentrate on whether the land fulfills the criteria to be designated a green for public use.

It will not make their task easier and, somehow, we do not think it will be the end of this long-running saga.