Town green bid set to fail

Two residents have applied to the council for land off the Gobowen Road to be registered as a town green - the latest move in a series of attempts to stop the development.

But the inspector who rejected a bid to protect the land last year says the application is bound to fail under present law.

The county's planning committee will meet on Wednesday when councillors will be recommended to reject the application.

Concerns about the land being claimed for public open space are holding up the massive scheme to turned five acres of the site into a health village for Oswestry.

A three-phase scheme would see a health centre built on part of the land with associated services including a minor injuries unit and X-ray and plaster facilities. Further phases would bring maternity and GP in-patient beds into the town centre, provided as part of a nursing home complex.

Behind the latest application to keep the land as a town green are Sue Davies and June McCarthy. The two lost a previous application following a public inquiry last Autumn. Now they have applied for that part of the original application site, which the government inspector accepted had seen uninterrupted use by the public from 1980 onwards, to be registered.

Mrs McCarthy said she did not want to say anything before the meeting next week.

In a report to councillors, planning officer Mr Richard Thomas says that under the current law the use of the land for pastimes has to be proven for the 20 years immediately before the date of the application and that such use was continuing at the time of the application.

But use of the former railway land ended more than two years ago, Mr Thomas says. "The 'use of right' was terminated by the erection of fencing and prohibition signs by Advantage West Midlands in June 2004," he said. He says the county has sought advice from the independent inspector at last year's hearing, Mr Vivian Chapman.

"It seems to me this application is bound to fail," Mr Chapman said.

By Sue Austin