Fighting for the green

By Tess McDermott

RESIDENTS fighting to save a triangle of Buckhurst Hill land under threat from a developer have applied to Essex County Council to have it officially registered as a village green.

Roding Valley Green Residents' Committee chairman Laurie Kubiak said: "If it's a village green it's protected. They can't build on it. It's as simple as that."

Neighbours were shocked when developer Steve McLaren felled trees and scrubland on the corner of Hornbeam Road and Chestnut Avenue in May, just days after he said he bought the land from the Charles S French Charitable Trust.

He told residents he planned to build flats.

But local people, who say the land has been used by the public since 1938, established the residents' committee to fight the plans.

At the last meeting more than 100 attendees voted unanimously to apply to register the land as a village green.

Mr Kubiak said: "When we submitted our application on June 28 we were able to include 114 statements from residents testifying to the continuous use of the land as a village green for about 60 years.

"More than half related to use of the green before the 1986 threshold and they continue to pour in.

"Throughout the decades, generation after generation have sat here, played with their children, courted, watched the wildlife, or simply passed the time of day. We have a moral duty to preserve it for the generations who are to come."

Resident Alan Brown said: "I'd be surprised if any developer who'd done his homework properly touched this site. For a start locals have been using it as a village green for as long as anyone can remember. Then there's the small power-station on the site ... it's live.

"There's also a subterranean stream running through the site, and a bridlepath running along one of the boundaries. If Mr McLaren has bought the land I reckon he's been sold a pup."

Since the meeting the number of signatures on a petition against development has topped 1,700, while the committee is "now well past" the 150-mark for witness statements.

Mr Kubiak said: "Residents believe their chances of success are good."

3:01pm Sunday 23rd July 2006

Taken from the Epping Forest Guardian.

The webmaster thanks the Epping Forest Guardian for their kind permission to publish this report.

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