A PARISH council in West Oxfordshire wants to sell a village green it rents out for just £1 per year as part of a historic leasing arrangement.

Two hundred years ago the parish of Hailey stretched into what is now the north-east of Witney, covering the area which includes Wood Green, the village green outside West Oxfordshire District Council’s headquarters.

Changes in parish boundaries have seen Witney gradually expand but the parish council in Hailey, which is two miles north of Witney, is still responsible for the green.

Now the council has decided it wants to sell the land for a realistic price.

Graham Knaggs, chairman of Hailey parish council, said: “Recently we thought ‘isn’t this a bit daft’ and wanted to see if there was a better solution.

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“Unfortunately the land is technically owned by the charity that we look after, so we’re under the regulations of the charity commissioners and cannot sell it without their permission.

“We approached Witney Town Council informally in November to see if it might be interested in buying the green.

“We're getting the land valued before we try to get permission to sell it.”

The green was left to Hailey parish in the 1860s under a Parliamentary enclosure act.

And a charitable trust was created to look after it, known as Allotments for the Labouring Poor.

But because Witney Town Council maintains the green, Hailey parish councillors decided in the 1930s they would lease the green to them for £1 per year, but ever since the rent has not been updated.

Mr Knaggs added that Hailey did not expect to make much money from the sale.

He said: “This isn’t a money-making exercise, it’s just to sort out something that should have been sorted out back in the 1930s.”

Witney Town Council cuts the grass on the green and looks after play equipment which it installed there a few years ago at a cost of £40,000.

Town clerk Sharon Groth said: “The council is quite keen for the green to be in its ownership but it's waiting for a formal decision from Hailey Parish Council.”

Other pieces of land bequeathed to Hailey parish under the enclosure act and looked after by the allotment charity are now allotments, which are rented out to residents for just £5 per year.

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