Residents win town's fight over open space

A six-year battle by five local residents ended with the local council being ordered by the highest court in the land to register the common as a town or village green. The unanimous decision over the area at Redcar by five Justices is expected to have a major impact on similar campaigns to save green sites, according to lawyers.

Friends of Coatham Common had applied to have the local authority-owned land registered as a green under the Commons Act in their fight to stop a 55m housing-led development.

They had to show that "as of right" they had used the land for sports and pastimes for 20 years.

An inspector who conducted a public inquiry recommended the land should not be registered after he found that although it had been used for sports for decades, the locals had "deferred" to players when it was a golf course.

Both the High Court and Court of Appeal found in favour of the local council.

But Lord Walker, in the ruling yesterday, said he had "great difficulty" in seeing how a land owner would have concluded that residents were not asserting a right to take recreation on the land "simply because they normally showed civility – or in the inspector's word, deference – towards members of the golf club".

Irwin Mitchell, solicitors representing the campaigners, said the council's plans for housing had been dashed now that the land will be designated as a green space.

In spite of being adjacent to a special protected area of European importance for birds – planning permission was granted for the development in 2007.