Neighbours shell out £54,000 to save field in Yorkshire from being built over
They are the best kind of neighbours – prepared to put their hands in their pockets for a common goal.
Residents in the South Yorkshire town of Wath upon Dearne united to save a field behind their homes from development.
They had just two weeks to mobilise after discovering that the land had been put up for auction by Keyland Developments, the property arm of Yorkshire Water.
Unfortunately the hammer came down at £54,000 – £16,500 over the limit they’d set themselves, and more than double the £25,000 guide price. B
Michael Flanagan, one of the neighbours, said everybody in the community uses the field which leads to Wath Woods.
He said: “It has two public footpaths that cross it to the woods. It is used daily by walkers and our houses back onto it.
"When we were buying our homes that was the big selling point – there was nobody at the back of us.
"The original worry was that we’d end up with 20 houses. Green belt doesn’t mean that much these days. There was no formal plan of action so I organised a bit of a meeting in the pub. Between eight and 10 of us decided we would be willing to contribute. We had a final meeting to discuss finances and how much we could raise and agreed a figure of £37,500.”
However at the auction on October 22 there was one other keen bidder and the neighbour, who had been nominated to act for the group, took the decision to go higher.
He is now shouldering the extra cost, but Mr Flanagan is hopeful others will invest.
He said: “He stumped up his own money to make up the shortfall. We don’t want to see him out of pocket.”
There may be no financial return on their investment, but there’s already excitement about what they can do with the field.
"The most we are going to do with it is possibly plant some wildflowers. We’ve talked about putting on some sort of community events – it is a nice way to bring people together.”
For more visit Friends of Wath Wood on Facebook.