People may remember that a meeting was called four years ago (February 2006) to highlight the threat to open space at Argyll Rise by development from Herefordshire Housing. At that time it was agreed to pursue an application to turn this piece of land into a town green and protect it for future generations.
Newton Farm Town Green Action Group made an initial application to create this green and following a public inquiry in July 2007, it transpired that we met all the criteria (4 points), except one, which was that the residents were using the land "by right" and not “as of right". Herefordshire Housing was delighted with this result and urged Herefordshire Council to refuse the application for town green status.
Surprisingly, ignoring the inquiry inspector's report, Herefordshire Council's lawyer recommended that the Council registered it as a town green. However, Hereford Housing's QC at the council meeting (November 2007) argued that Herefordshire Council would be wrong in going against the inspector's report. The Council followed the inspector's advice and rejected the application.
It would appear that the saving of this piece of land would be lost, except that NFTGAG had a second application in hand, due to a change in the law, and this was submitted to Herefordshire Council for consideration (October 2007). Herefordshire Housing is again opposing the second application and NFTGAG are submitting new evidence that we hope will overturn the original decision to not create the green.
Due to the protracted delay in dealing with this second application, a complaint was made against Herefordshire Council through the Local Government Ombudsman. This has resulted in the Council ensuring it gets advice on the law of town and village greens from one of the country's most experienced barristers in this field, Mr Vivian Chapman QC.
The hearing is to be held before the Regulatory Committee at Brockington, Hafod Road on Tuesday 2nd November 2010 at 2.00pm. Mr Vivian Chapman QC will advise the Committee with Miss Morag Ellis QC for Herefordshire Housing and Christopher Whitmey for Newton Farm Town Green Action Group.
Any public support for this cause on the day would be extremely welcome.
