Fury as town green is backed

Furious civic leaders have vowed to fight on to stop five acres of former railway land in Oswestry being registered as a town green.

At a meeting yesterday, members of Oswestry Town Council said 99.9 per cent of the population wanted the land, off Gobowen Road, to be used for the development of health facilities and not doing so would deprive the people of a “major asset”.

And they agreed to write to the Government voicing their concern that a recent public inquiry into the future of the land may not have been conducted properly.

The councillors’ anger was sparked by a decision by members of Shropshire County Council yesterday morning to back a planning inspector’s recommendation that the site should be registered as a town green.

However, county councillors deferred their final decision to take legal advice over concerns some of the land should be safeguarded for a heritage railway.

But at their meeting yesterday evening, town councillors hit out at the town green proposal.

Councillor Owen Jones said only a “small minority” of Oswestry people backed the plans.

“If they turn that valuable piece of land into a village green they are depriving the people of Oswestry of a major asset,” he said.

Councillor John Evans said 99.9 per cent of people in Oswestry wanted the land used for health facilities.

“I’m disgusted by the whole thing,” he said.

Councillor Bill Benyon said the same planning inspector who conducted an initial public inquiry into the future use of the land in 2005 had conducted the second public inquiry earlier this year.

Councillors agreed to write to Government ministers raising their concerns about the same inspector conducting both inquiries.

Meanwhile, the group behind the plans to run a heritage railway through Oswestry today urged the county council to ensure the “vital” piece of rail trackbed is safeguarded for their use.

The trackbed runs through the controversial five-acre site.

Today the Cambrian Railway Trust said safeguarding that piece of trackbed was vital to its proposal to to run trains through the town again after more than 40 years.

By Iain St John