Campaigners have called on the council to extend a city centre nature reserve after it shelved plans to sell off open land bordering the site.
Earlier this week (May 26) council leader Ian Ward announced during a cabinet meeting that proposals to sell off an area of land on Queslett Road/Old Horns Crescent had been postponed, in order that 'further discussions' over the site could take place.
The council's proposals had drawn much criticism from both the local community and local councillors, with the land in question deemed to be a de facto part of the park by many residents.
The local Conservative Group have called on the council to incorporate the open land into the existing park, in order to "protect local health and wellbeing and the environment."
And, now that the proposals are being 'reconsidered', one local campaigner has backed these calls, urging the council to 'finally recognise the value of this land.'
“Whist I clearly welcome the decision to have another rethink, we have been here several times before," said local Oscott campaigner Darius Sandhu.
"Now it is finally time they recognise the value of this land to the local environment and treat it as a formal part of the nature reserve as it has in practice been used for a number of years.
"It would be a massive loss for the local area if this land was sold, especially if it ended up being used for purposes completely at odds with the councils stated environmental and health priorities, such as some sort of fast food takeaway.”
Speaking on the issue Cllr Ewan Mackey, deputy leader of the local Conservative group, said: Alongside local campaigners like Darius Sandhu, we have been calling for this land to be incorporated into the nature reserve for some time, and included proposals in our alternative budget to make it happen.
"Labour keep trying to sell it and then baulking under political and local pressure, especially round election time. Hopefully this time they will at last just do the right thing and this isn’t just another cynical attempt to delay plans until they can sneak them through at a later date."
