the land is ours
The residents of Ashton Vale have won their fight to have the fields by their homes registered as a Town Green. Their fields were destined to be turned into football stadium, a concert area plus car parks, with a large road and rapid bus transit route through the middle.


PRESS RELEASE

Ashton Vale Heritage Group and the Town Green Applicants would like to thank the 188 local residents who gave witness evidence of their use of Ashton Vale Fields, enabling us to show 60 years of use, often going back through 3, 4 (and in two cases) 5 generations of the same family. We also thank the many others who provided support, documentation and other evidence to assist our case. Only one local resident gave evidence to support the developers.

There were many other people who use the land who did not feel able to give evidence, some believing it was pointless in trying to protect the green space which they believed had already been lost to developers and others with memories of past developments when residents had been ignored. We do not know the outcome of the Town Green Application. From the outset our aim was to protect the land for future generations to enjoy. If Town Green status has been granted then it is testament to what can be achieved by ordinary people when you have the support of people willing to help you.

The Town Green application had very little to do with football or the stadium, it was always about protecting this precious green space. The land means so much to so many people and we felt that we had to try and protect it.
Much false comment has been made about the land in the press and on message boards over the last few months. Only a part of the northern most field on the land was a waste tip between 1986 and 1988 and by the start of 1989 it had been returned to grassland. The land has always been and is still being grazed by dairy herds. As the farmer stated to the public enquiry, she has always had her uses for the land and we have had ours. The farmers and residents have always had excellent relations, working together well in their shared use of the land.

Ashton Vale is surrounded on three sides by industrial estates and railway lines. The fourth side is the fields, a site of nature conservation, natural wetland and home to many protected species. Bristol City Council has since at least 1982 registered the majority of Ashton Vale fields as a Site of Nature Conservation Interest.
Had development gone ahead, we would have been entirely surrounded by industry, with no green spaces in between for us to play, walk dogs or enjoy the wildlife. Local residents have been protecting these fields and fighting development of this site for more than 40 years. If we have achieved town green status, then we hope once and for all we can be free of the anxiety and stress we have endured for the last two years and look forward to our children and our grandchildren continuing to enjoy the land without the threat of development.

At the outset of this case, we took much encouragement and received much support from others in Bristol who had successfully brought town green cases. We now offer our encouragement and support to the many across this city whose green spaces are currently threatened by development.
If town green status is granted, then Ashton Vale fields will be one of the larger greens in Britain, but not as large as the 43 acre green in the village of Great Bentley in Essex.