Town green campaign moves forward

A campaign to stop a leisure centre being built on a recreation ground has moved a step forward.

South Somerset District Council plans to create a "sports zone" and car park on the green space site in Yeovil.

But Save Yeovil Rec is pressing for the area to be registered as a town green in the hope of halting the development.

The first stage of the town green application has been accepted by Somerset County Council and objections must be lodged in the next six weeks.

A Save Yeovil Rec spokesman said: "Many hours of hard work went into collating the necessary paperwork and this is a tribute to that dedication and effort."

Open vista

Yeovil Rec already has a number of football pitches, a mini-golf course and a running track.

But protesters said a leisure centre and car park would "destroy the open vista aspect of a rare urban community open green space".

A spokeswoman for South Somerset District Council said town green status allowed people to continue using a piece of land for recreational purposes if they had not been officially granted permission in the first place.

In the case of Yeovil Rec, she said the council had always given its consent for the site to be used and that town green status would not necessarily stop development because the proposed schemes were related to recreation.