Churwell village green bid to be rejected
A PLANNING inspector has rejected a bid to get land on Pit Hill in Churwell registered as a village green.
Ruth Stockley who conducted a three day inquiry in Morley in May found against the “Save Pit Hill” campaigners who had hoped to block any future development on the privately owned land.
Her report will be considered by members of Leeds City Council’s south and west plans panel on Thursday but planning officers have recommended it be accepted.
If they do it will bring to an end a campaign started last year to get the 58 acre site turned into a village green.
Campaigners had argued the fields had been an “integral part of village life” for generations.
If they had won the argument the ownership of the land would not have changed but the owners would have been severely limited as to what they could do with it.
Lawyers for the owners argued that the land was farmed and so, with the exception of the public footpaths that cross it, could not have been used for “lawful sports and pastimes”over the last 20 years.
The inspector’s report said the applicants had failed to establish the land had been used for sports and pastimes as of right to a “sufficient extent and continuity” throughout the 20 year period or that the land has been used by a significant number of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
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Sunday 19 May 2013
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