NORTHWAY people are trying to use a 60-year-old covenant to stop land being turned into an access road for the new Barton Park estate.

Yesterday an inquiry over whether to designate the land at Foxwell Drive as a town green – and therefore protect it – started in earnest in front of a planning inspector.

Oxford City Council wants to build a junction on the land and across the A40 to link its 900-home Barton Park development with Northway.

But residents, led by Georgina Gibbs, are applying for it to be granted Town Green status because they say it is used by the community.

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In her opening statement, Saxon Way resident Ms Gibbs told inspector Ross Crail that the land to build the Northway estate was sold to the city council by farmer Henry Berry in the 1950s.

As part of the sale, Ms Gibbs claimed a covenant was placed on the land preventing it from being developed.

She said: “(Mr Berry) wanted it to walk his animals and he said that if anyone tries to overturn this then they forfeit the land.”

She added: “All the residents feel passionately about preserving this green space. Our case is not to hinder the Barton development.”

Planning permission for the Barton Park development was granted last year and work is expected to start in 2015.

Land can be registered as a town or village green if it has been used for “lawful sports and pastimes as of right” for not less than 20 years.

If land is designated as a town green then it would stop any development from taking place there and so prevent the junction being built.

One of Ms Gibbs’ witnesses was Jane Cox, a Meaden Hill resident who is also chairwoman of the Northway Residents Group.

She said: “At the moment the trees prevent the pollution and noise from the A40 from coming into Northway. When those trees have gone it will funnel all the noise and pollution into the estate.

“It will be unbearable and it will not be safe.”

Ms Cox was cross examined by the city council’s barrister, Douglas Edwards.

He said: “In your questionnaire you describe the land as always having been the local rec. That means it is a piece of land maintained by the local authority. Has the council maintained the land?”

Ms Cox said: “They have just mowed it. There has never been any maintenance.”

The inquiry is due to last three weeks and city council’s lawyers due to begin putting its case forward on Friday.

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