Oxford environmental campaigners are heading to the House of Lords in a last-ditch attempt to register a development site as a village green.
Led by Catherine Robinson, the secretary of local action group Friends of the Trap Grounds, the campaigners are challenging a February 2005 Court of Appeal ruling that opened the way for Oxfordshire Council to block their village green application.
In its decision, the court said that the group must show that the land has been used without interruption for 20 years, the cut-off point for which will be when the registration is completed rather than when the application is received.
The ruling gives landowners a “final opportunity to assert their rights”, once they become aware of an application, by preventing public access to the site.
Five law lords will now decide a final appeal brought by Robinson, who is now backed by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in a five-day hearing starting on 27 March.
Oxford City Council opposed Robinson’s registration of the north Oxford site, which comprises six acres of undeveloped scrublands and reed-beds known as the Trap Grounds, because it interfered with plans for a 45-house development.
In August 2003, they erected a sign prohibiting access to the land without express consent.
However, English Nature, the Environment Agency and Friends of the Trap Grounds fear that the project will destroy the habitats of protected wildlife.
Oxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council and another House of Lords (Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry and Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe)
References: EGi Legal News 23/03/06