An application
has been made to have the Thrupp and Bullfield Lakes
at Radley and surrounding land declared a ‘Town Green'.
This application has now cleared the first hurdle by
being accepted as ‘duly made' by Oxfordshire County
Council. If the land is eventually registered as a Town
Green, RWE npower will not be able to use it as a dump
for 500,000 tonnes of waste ash from Didcot Power Station.
Under the1965
Commons Act, if land has been used by local people ‘as
of right' for lawful sports and pastimes for over twenty
years, it can be registered as a Town (or Village) Green.
That protects it from development
The County Council
now has to advertise the Radley Lakes application and
seek comments from the landowners and the general public.
If a large number of comments are received, the County
Council is likely to hold a public inquiry in front
of an independent inspector into the application. That
might lead to a recommendation that the Lakes be registered.
Mrs Jo Cartmell,
who made the application, said:
“I am absolutely
delighted that my application has cleared the first
hurdle. I was overwhelmed by the number of people who
wanted to put in evidence saying that they have been
using the land for recreation for years. Local people
love this spot – it is one of the very few places left
near Abingdon where you can go and get away from it
all.
“It's extraordinary
that RWE npower should want to destroy it. They should
never have bought the site in the first place – they
should have realised how much local people valued it
because it is close to their homes. It would have been
better if they had thought a bit more carefully about
it before they bought the site without getting planning
permission first.
“Now that the
Town Green application is going on to the next stage,
anybody who wants to can write to the County Council
and ask for the area to be registered. The more letters
and evidence the County gets from local people, the
stronger the case will be. I am very optimistic about
the outcome”.
Applications
to make the Glebe
Land at Sunningwell and the Trap
Grounds in Oxford into Greens both ended up in court
cases at the House of Lords. In both cases, the Law
Lords ruled that the land should be protected.
Last week, the
campaigners discovered that there is 8 million cubic
metres of empty landfill space at Sutton Courtenay –
4.6 million cubic metres more than the company which
runs the landfill site previously thought. Waste ash
from Didcot Power Station is already being disposed
of at Sutton Courtenay. Radley Lakes campaigners say
that planning permission for Radley cannot now be granted,
because there clearly is an alternative site available
at Sutton Courtenay.
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