A green space in a West Yorkshire town has been saved from development by local campaigners.
Locals in Yeadon, in the shadow of Leeds-Bradford airport, succeeded in having an open space ruled to be a town green, which means it should not be built on.
Inspector Alun Aylesbury ruled that Yeadon Banks had been used for recreation for 20 years and so could be registered as a green. The Keep Yeadon Banks Green Group (Keybag) campaigned on the issue even after would-be developers fenced off the area.
Kate Ashbrook of the Open Spaces Society said: “The objectors, Leeds Group PLC, who own part of the land, and David Wilson Homes who want to buy the land for development, tried to thwart the application by erecting fences and ‘keep-out’ signs.
“At that time the law allowed such action to prevent registration as a green. Fortunately, Leeds City Council, the greens-registration authority, agreed to defer determination of the application until a test case had been heard in the House of Lords.”
That ruling, the Trap Grounds case in Oxford, determined that, provided the use of the land had continued up to the date of the application, the application was valid. Leeds City Council will consider the inspector’s recommendation at its planning meeting on Thursday.
Ms Ashbrook said: “We congratulate [Doug] Jones and Keybag for their persistence and we urge Leeds City Council to rule next week that the land be registered as a green. It will thus be saved from development and kept green and open for the public to enjoy.”
Brian Wright
20 February 2007Kate Ashbrook is riding high on the Trap Grounds victory, so the £10,000 the OSS donated to that local campaign earned her some brownie points on the village greens front. However, many old and new greens campaigns have been lost due to her 23 year obsession with running the Ramblers Association, backed by Labour Party MPs. That cozy political arrangement is beginning to look rather suspicious. Kate must decide whether her various charities are really political pressure groups, and if the restrictions of charitable registration are cramping her style. Political activists in charities are like square pegs in round holes. However, if Kate would focus her attention on the charitable purposes of the Open Spaces Society, she might help to register many more new greens. It is not good enough to rest on the laurels of the Trap Grounds test case. The society needs to be more proactive on greens, this is where the real battle against community unfriendly development can be won, in many Yeadons. At present, the Open Spaces Society does not get involved deeply in the many greens campaigns which come to its attention. It really should, according to its charitable purposes. The Society invites local campaign groups to join the Society, and mainly provides the standard advice and application pack, then leaves them to get on with it. In some cases, more attention to detail by the Society, could have prevented groups making simple but fundamental mistakes in their village green application forms. Kate is employed full time by the Open Spaces Society, so she should work full time for its causes. As former assistant secretary, I could help to get this campaign to another level, but Kate won't let me join the Society, because I have disagreed with her political tactics, and some of her financial decisions. I do hope Kate will respect my democratic rights in future, as I have now been nominated to stand for the Trustee Board of the Ramblers' Association.