A PUBLIC inquiry has begun into the future of a piece of land which is crucial to Witney’s proposed Cogges Link Road.

Owen Edwards wants Witney Meadows Country Park, in Farm Hill Lane, to be awarded Town Green status.

This would protect it from any development and could potentially scupper the £9.5m scheme to build a link road between the town and Cogges to relieve traffic congestion.

Oxfordshire County Council’s highways department, which has planning permission to use the country park to build the road, and landowner Witney Town Council have both objected.

The inquiry, which started yesterday at the Methodist Hall in High Street, could last up to seven days.

Inspector Charles Mynors, who was appointed by the county council – in its role as town green registration authority – told the inquiry that the dual role of the county council would not influence the decision.

He said: “May I make it abundantly clear that the county council has split itself into two compartments for this purpose.

“The registration authority is highly neutral and the highways authority is opposing it. I am satisfied that there are two totally separate entities.”

Mr Edwards, who lives in Witney, must persuade the inspector that the Meadows should qualify for Town Green status.

He has to prove that the land has been freely available for public leisure and recreation for the past 20 years.

Mr Mynors said: “This is not a planning inquiry, it’s not an inquiry into whether this road should be built, it’s simply and solely an inquiry into how the land has been used for 20 years.”

County Highways and the town council say people have only been able to use the land with the permission of the landowner.

They will also argue that it has not been continuously open because of a 49-day period in 2001 when the meadows were closed because of the foot and mouth outbreak.

Ross Crail, representing the county council, said: “The land was used not as a right but by permission of the landowner.”

At the end of the inquiry Mr Mynors will make a recommendation to County Hall as to whether or not Town Green status should be approved.