Residents urge action on fence

CONFUSION over public access to fields in Widewell deepened last nights as angry residents demanded answers from the city council.

More than 80 residents attended a public meeting over the row about the legality of a fence erected by Widewell school – recently given trust status – around a large area of green land.

Residents dispute the school's ownership of the land, saying it was once used by the school but was declared a public open space with public access rights because the school stopped using it.

Resident Mike Gibson said: "The education authority ended its relationship with the land it they said it was surplus to requirement some years ago.

"The councillors who put through the claim that the school owns it were not even Southway councillors.

Residents and local councillors claim that no documents exist to support the school's claim to it.

One angry resident said: "If it was illegally erected what would happen if it was torn down?"

Resident and chairman of the Widewell Residents Association Ted Willey said: "We are here to give power to the councillors, so they can take our opinion and represent it – if we don't try, we won't succeed."

"The council has said the school shouldn't have put the fence up and planners are looking into it – it never had planning permission."

Several residents spoke of the many years they had spent using the land for jogging, walking and playing when they grew up and said that now their children and grandchildren had nowhere to play.

Local councillor Tom Browne said: "History shows the field was for public use. There is no legal right why the school should fence it off, it has no authority.

"It is owned by Plymouth City Council – there is no right to say it is the school's."

A Plymouth City Council officer present gave no comment about the legality of the land but offered the public forms to fill in on rights of way.

No other members of the council or the school attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, Widewell residents have been dealt a further blow after an influential forum representing groups including walkers and horseriders refused to back their case.

The Plymouth Local Access Forum refused to give its formal support to the Widewell Action Group in its fight against the fence.

The forum heard that the fence was put up after the school was taken over by an educational trust last year.

Residents say that they have used the fields for generations, although the forum was told that there did not appear to be any public right of way.

The forum was urged to back the Widewell residents. But Oliver Marney, who works for Connexions and represents the views of young people, said a school should be a special case.

He said there were precedents for denying the public access to certain areas, like Vixen Tor on Dartmoor.

"Lots of schools have archery clubs," Mr Marney said. "If somebody was firing an arrow across a field and it hit a walker, whose fault would that be?"

He said there was a security issue about who would police the site once school staff had left. Ray Fairchild, the forum chairman, said there had been cases of vandalism at Eggbuckland Community College and people riding motorbikes over playing fields.

Dog-walkers had refused to leave school fields even when the children were trying to play sport.

However, he added: "If there was a public right of way I would have to support local people."