A council has bought 24 acres of water meadows to protect them from development.

The meadows, which form a floodplain on the Crowmarsh bank of the River Thames, to the south of Wallingford Bridge, attract many visitors. They were in private hands and community leaders had been concerned that public enjoyment of the land might be jeopardised by development.

Controversial plans to build an arts park there were opposed by Crowmarsh Parish Wallingford Town councils before the Department of the Environment rejected the scheme in August 1997.

But South Oxfordshire District Council has now struck a deal with the site's owners, John Morton and Tom Lupton, and brought the land into public ownership for an undisclosed sum. The council's head of leisure and countryside, Chris Tyson, said: "The council has been interested in buying this very important site since 1997. It has taken a long time to conclude the deal. The land will now be available for continued public usage."

The chairman of Crowmarsh Parish Council, John Bellamy, said he was "absolutely delighted" the council had bought the land.

He added: "We wanted the land to be left in its natural state as a corridor of open space between Crowmarsh and Wallingford."

Wallingford's mayor, Theresa Jordan, said recent flooding showed how foolish it would have been to develop the site.

**The field with grazing cows next to the water meadows is still closed due to foot and mouth restrictions.