The Open Spaces Society, (OSS), is objecting to Government plans to make it even more difficult to register land as a town or village green.
And Government handling of such matters is being watched with particular concern in Huddersfield thanks to the Clayton Fields saga.
For decades users of the site had enjoyed walking their dogs and enjoying the picturesque scenery unaware that one day a developer would try to build on the land between Edgerton and Birkby.
But that is what happened several years ago when Paddico (267) Ltd spent large sums of money trying to reverse a High Court decision. A local action group was set up to fight the plans and the legal row has swung back and forth between the parties with a final landmark decision by the Supreme Court expected within months.
The OSS says further harsh restrictions were imposed by the Growth and Infrastructure Act earlier this year.
It says the Act outlaws applications to register land as a green in England when that land is threatened with development.
And the society says the Government is now proposing to extend this restriction to land which is subject to a Local Development Order, a Neighbourhood Development Order and Transport and Works Act Orders (ie for infrastructure projects.
Society case officer Nicola Hodgson said: “These restrictions will prohibit valid applications to register land as a green, thereby depriving the community of its rights of recreation there and putting the land at risk of development.
“These proposals are purely about saving money and putting development first – regardless of the cost to the environment and to communities.
“As a result local people will lose their valued open spaces.
“We have called on the Government to abandon these further damaging changes to the law of town and village greens.”
