Great Baddow residents should know within six weeks if they have won their battle to save a playing field from development.

They packed the village community centre on Monday to hear the final submissions in the public inquiry into their bid to have the four-acre Bringey field, off Newport Close, registered as a village green, and thereby saved from the bulldozer.

It is believed to be the first such case of its kind in Essex.

There is planning permission for 46 homes on the site, formerly owned by Essex County Council, and sold last year to developers Barratt Eastern Counties, both of whom are objecting.

The residents' case, put by Paul Twinn, in whose name the registration application was made, was that the field has been used by local people for more than 20 years for sports and leisure pursuits, without express permission, or objection, from the county council, and thus now qualifies for village green status.

"The council knew it was used unofficially as a public open space and did nothing to stop the usage," he said. "No notices were erected, nor residents written to asking them to stop using the field."

Nigel McLeod QC, for the county council, said the authority's intention that the field should be developed had been public knowledge for some time. It was known, he said, that there was "a termination to the length of time this site could be used by the public."

George Laurence QC, for Barratts, said the site was not one normally thought of as a village green: it was an open space surrounded by modern houses.

"A village green is naturally thought of as a piece of land of much greater antiquity than this," he said.

The independent inspector conducting the inquiry, Charles George QC, is expected to issue his recommendation to the county council, which is the village green registration authority, in four to six weeks. The county council will then decide whether to act on his advice.

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