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The elephant in the room  There are some policy areas that are so complicated that the public prefer to ignore them and politicians feel reluctant to address them.  I want to tackle some of these "elephants in the room" in this "Too Difficult" series.  I have a little list which starts with planning, pensions, social care and local government finance but I suspect there will be others.

I am not clever enough to create a reply function on this web site but, if you would like to e-mail a response to me on anything below, here is my  e-mail address and I will consider uploading it to this site.  If I do upload it, I will do so without alteration and with the author's name. 

Town & Village Greens:  The Oxford Mail carries a banner headline on page 2 of the 17 September edition Town Green bid threatens teams.  They report as follows:

Young footballers on Oxford’s biggest estate claim to have been “caught in the crossfire” in an ongoing battle over a planned £9.2m swimming pool.  Oxford Blackbirds Football Club chairman and under-15s manager Kevin Foley, front centre, with parents coaches and players at the park in Pegasus  Road – which is at the centre of a Town Green status bid  More than 230 children play for the Oxford Blackbirds on the park in Pegasus Road every week. But the players and coaches now fear an application to turn the park into a protected Town Green could stop them playing.  Opponents of a proposed swimming pool at the park’s leisure centre last month submitted an application to try to prevent builders ever touching the site.  The club worries it could also jeopardise future improvements and its insurance.  They have now launched a petition, signed by more than 700 parents and former players, against the Town Green bid.

Chairman Kevin Foley said: “If this goes ahead, we could be playing a game and then someone could just sit down and have a picnic in the middle of the pitch.  The football league has already told us we won’t be able to get insurance cover to play on the park.”

Town Green status would prevent the land being changed in the future, as well as giving people the ‘right to roam’, which means the club would struggle to get insurance.  The council can currently enforce rules to prevent people wandering on to the pitches or riding motorbikes but the status would remove this. 

Mr Foley said: “And if the swimming pool does not go ahead, we have got no chance of getting any changing rooms.

“The leisure centre had plans to lay Astroturf too but that would not happen.”

Oxford City Council was due to start building this month but it has been delayed while Oxfordshire County Council considers the application.

Blackbirds vice chairman Bob Campbell said: “I know this is about the swimming pool but that has got nothing to do with us. We are caught in the crossfire.  “This is not just about the kids. It is about the grandparents and parents who come down every Sunday too.”

Dad Thomas Malloy, 35, added: “You can see how much fun the children have when they come here. You can’t take that away from them.  The Town Green would just minimise the park’s use.”

Player Ben Clifton, 15, said: “I would be upset if we could not play in the league anymore.”

The Oxford Mail was yesterday unable to contact William Clark or other Blackbird Leys residents behind the bid. But last month Mr Clark, of Pegasus Road, said: “It is the only green space in Blackbird Leys and we can’t let the council build whatever they like.”

Blackbird Leys councillor Val Smith said: “There’s a lot at stake here. There are a lot of health and safety stipulations in the league because the kids have to be safe.  “I have to think about Blackbird Leys and what’s right for us. And that’s this new pool.”

Warneford Meadow was last year awarded Town Green status which prevented it being sold for development.

Oxford City Council spokesman Louisa Dean said: “We hope the decision is made swiftly as it is preventing work starting on the new competition standard swimming pool.” Oxfordshire County Council said it was still consulting.

The Oxford Blackbirds were set up in 1961 and were originally for boys on the estate.  Girls were let into the club 15 years ago and they now have 11 teams across the different age categories.  In 2006, the club launched a Save Oxford Blackbirds Campaign when their equipment was locked out of the changing rooms following disagreements with the council over a new contract demanding more money from youth football clubs.  Many of the club’s teams compete in the Oxford Mail Boys and Girls’ leagues.

When I Google the web for "Town & Village Green", here are some of the links I find and their related headlines:

Oldham: Town green threat to £200m schools revamp:  Oldham Council wanted to build three new academies and rebuild or refurbish others as part of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme.  [Probably dead in the water now!]  The Oak Colliery site in Hollinwood and the former Orb Mill site in Waterhead were cited as preferred locations for two of the academies while the third was planned for the town centre.  However, a Baptist minister and former borough councillor, backed by Hollinwood Community Council, applied to register Oak Colliery as a town green to save it from development.

Bristol: Date set for Ashton Vale football stadium decision:  Bristol City Football Club had planning permission to build a stadium on the Ashton Vale site. Some residents claimed the site, owned by Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown, is used as a recreational area and have sought to protect it by gaining town green status.  Approval would mean the 42-acre site would be protected from development and would thwart the football club's plans.

Here is a link to the Defra web site description of the Commons Act 2006 which introduced a new process for registering Town & Village Greens and here is a link to the Defra Factsheet on the Commons Act 2006.

Here is a link to a House of Commons debate on Town Greens in March 2008.

I value green space, whether in the heart of a city or a town or the vast green spaces that a county like Oxfordshire enjoys around its settlements.  However, I am beginning to suspect that we have innocently created another elephant in the room - like the human rights industry; like the equalities and gay rights industry; like the 'elf & safety industry and like the ever-expanding burden of EU legislation that sounds fair and logical but just grows to a monster that defies logic and common sense.  I would be interested to hear of other examples where the Town & Village Green legislation is being used by vocal minorities to prevent something of great benefit to a less vocal majority?  Answers on a postcard or, preferably, en e-mail.