Protesters to fight on in homes site battle

Residents of Edgerton and Birkby were shocked when contractors using excavators moved on to the land off Queen’s Road to create a site entrance for a possible development – despite a pending High Court appeal.

Steel fences with Keep Out signs were built at various points alongside Clayton Fields, and police had to be called after action group members tried to persuade the contractors to end the work.

Developers Paddico (267) Ltd are working with Prospect Estates on the project which could see as many as 55 homes built, having won a court battle over the land several weeks ago.

Yesterday, the secretary of the action group, Mike Hardy, said there would be no let up in the increasingly bitter dispute which is seen as having national importance.

He said: “We are being partially funded by a public office within the Government because it is such a significant landmark decision.

“Despite the fencing going up we are not discouraged though the irony is that the company could potentially erect the houses by the time we get round to having our appeal heard it could take many months before a judge makes a decision.

“Unlike criminal law where all work stops pending an appeal, in civil law it is completely the reverse and we could end up with an odd situation whereby 55 houses are erected only for a judge to find it was illegal. Despite this possibility we fight on.”

The chairman of Paddico (267) Ltd, John Lund, says he intends to build 55 socially affordable houses and develop 60 per cent of the site.

He says that a High Court judge has ruled that the land is not a village green, that his company owns the site and it has been historically allocated for housing in the council’s Unitary Development Plan.