A BID to scupper plans for an access road to a planned housing estate in Barton has been thrown out.

The Planning Inspectorate has dismissed Saxon Way resident Georgina Gibbs’s bid to register land in Foxwell Drive, Northway as a town green.

Supporters hoped this could stop an access road being built from the land to the approved 885-home Barton Park develop-ment, for which work will start next year.

They had to show that the land had been used for sports and pastimes for at least 20 years to get town green status.

A two-week inquiry was held in July and Planning Inspector Ross Crail concluded: “It has not been shown that a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality or any neighbourhood within a locality indulged in lawful sports and pastimes as of right on the application land or any part of it for a period of at least 20 years and contin-ued to do so at the time of the application.”

Oxford City Council, a partner in the housing development, opposed Miss Gibbs’s application because, it argued, it did not meet a key legal test.

Land can be registered as a town green if it has been used “as of right” for “lawful sports and pastimes” for over 20 years.

In this case, though, the council argued, town green rules did not apply.

Our top stories

 

 

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.