Open space fight hopes are lifted

CARRY on fighting . . . baptist minister the Rev David Joynes at the Oak Colliery site

BATTLING baptist minister David Joynes has been given a second chance to permanently protect Hollinwood’s last major piece of open space from development.

Mr Joynes saw defeat in July when an independent inspector decided that the application he made for Town Green status for the Oak Colliery site should be turned down.

Plans to site a city academy there had already been put aside, but it was feared that other developments might follow later.

And it was a double blow for the Minister of Beulah Baptist Church, Hollinwood, because he had staked thousands of pounds of his own money in the legal fight.

But at a meeting of Oldham Council’s Town Green Registration Committee last night, Mr Joynes’s barrister David Gilchrist argued that inquiry inspector Martin Carter, who conducted a two-day hearing, was wrong in reaching the decision he came to.

He said they disputed Mr Carter’s findings that the land was not available for the public “as of right.”

He also pointed to evidence from a former deputy borough solicitor of Oldham which stated that the council took the issue of open space very seriously.

The Town Green committee retired to decide whether to allow Mr Joynes’s challenge or reject it.

When they returned, chairman, Councillor Roger Hindle spelled out the suggestion that the matter be referred to Vivien Chapman QC, a leading expert on the issue, for a second opinion, which councillors voted for unanimously.

Councillor Hindle said they would be looking to reconvene on the issue at the earliest opportunity.

After the meeting, Mr Joynes was discussing the implications of the decision with his lawyers.

But he broke off to say: “I am pleased with the decision because it means there is a possibility of it being resolved as we hoped. But I will accept the ruling.”

Earlier the committee had been told by Alun Aylesbury QC, who had represented Oldham Council at the July hearing, that in his opinion they should not get another outside lawyer for a second opinion as this was, he said, an undesirable use of public funds.