On 04/12/2017 01:09, Bill wrote:
Today I joined a protest about the sale of some public land by the local
council. I was wondering if anyone here can point me to a simple to
understand precis of the current planning or legal situation.

In this particular case, my understanding of the current position is
that the land was covenanted to the local community by someone with the
condition that it should remain open space. Any covenant documents
appear to have been lost.
This was raised in the past when the council first proposed the sale,
and the council took legal advice and backed down.

They have now re-advertised the land for auction. A councillor attended
the protest and said that the situation was now different because the
council has advice that it is a different body from "the community" and
so can just decide to sell any public land. He also said that recent
changes in planning law appear to have resulted in a situation whereby a
council can take any piece of public land and sell it.

There are other areas close by which have similar covenants, so this is
almost certainly the soft target for the thin end of the wedge.

It might be worth you contacting the following to find out what they
have found and done in a similar case:

http://www.saveflixtongreenbelt.org

Our area has been having a similar fight over land that was donated,
with a covenant that it should be retained for the recreational use of
the people of Flixton. In the '70s it was threatened with development
and a councillor ensured that it was turned into a municipal golf course
to protect it. Recently the golf course was deliberately run down,
declared to be losing money and closed. Now they want to build 750 homes
there - despite all the local infrastructure being totally overloaded.
The council state that the covenant was with Urmston Urban District
Council, which no longer exists after their powers were absorbed into
Trafford Council and as UUDC no longer exists, Trafford Council state
that they cannot be bound by it.

So far they have backed down to half the number of homes after a
prolonged fight, but locally we are still fighting to stop it
completely. The latest suggestion (which happens to be what I suggested
at the start) is to turn it into a woodland.

SteveW