3 days Ago
A bid to have a 35-acre area of open space declared a Village Green has failed. A three-year campaign by the Medway Ecological Riverine Link (MERlin) and local residents to have the land at Bunyards Farm in Allington given Village Green status ended with the decision this week by government inspector Annabel Graham Paul, who ruled against their application. Inspector Annabel Graham Paul said no to the Village Green Her decision leaves the way clear for Barrett David Wilson Ltd to go ahead with its planning application to build 435 homes on the land.
The campaigners first submitted their request to Kent County Council (KCC) in June of 2021. A public inquiry was held in March this year. To prove their case, MERLin had to show that the public had enjoyed unfettered access to the land, which is owned by the Andrew Cheale Trust, for the past 20 years and they submitted a number of witness statements from nearby residents to support that claim.
Local people said they had used the land to walk their dogs, pick blackberries and as a play area for their children. But at a public hearing, the landowners argued that, although the land has not been intensively farmed since 1998, it had occasionally been used for other activities such as hay-making and horse-grazing. Bunyards Farm will now be lost to housing following the failed Village Green application Douglas Edwards KC, a barrister acting for the landowner, suggested that the gaps in the perimeter fencing, which had allowed the public to gain access, were a result of vandalism, rather than the owners' neglect.
Kent County Councillor Chris Passmore (Lib Dem) was one of the campaigners heavily involved in the application. He said: "This is a bitter blow for thousands of..
. Alan Smith.
