FIELDS will be protected from development forever under a move announced as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Kirklees Council is seeking to back the move to recognise West Mills Playing Fields at Battyeford as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.
It comes after the popular Battyeford site garnered one of the highest number of public votes in the country in the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge.
The scheme will protect 2,012 UK open spaces in celebration of the jubilee and the 2012 Olympics.
Mirfield councillor Martyn Bolt told the Examiner: “It means that these fields will become protected by law from any development.
“Battyeford is something I and others have been working on for many years to develop as a country park.
“We’ve already got the playing fields used by Battyeford Sporting Club and the woods and fishermen down there.
“This means it will be saved for future generations and that it won’t be threatened by development.”
John Cotton bedding company previously looked to turn the fields into a lorry park and more recently British Waterways tried to sell off land at Halfpenny Bridge.
But if members of Kirklees Council’s cabinet agree to endorse the move in the next few weeks, the fields will be protected permanently from development, and will be eligible for extra funding.
Clr Bolt said: “We would love to create pathways around the site and have canoeists and anglers down there.
“This news is a credit to local council officers and John Fletcher in leisure services who have been working towards this. They really are the life-blood of the council.”
