EFFORTS to protect two Poole recreation grounds could be given a Royal seal of approval during the Diamond Jubilee year.

Baiter and Whitecliff recreation grounds could become Queen Elizabeth II Fields in Trust after a Poole council meeting overwhelmingly backed the idea.

The Fields in Trust scheme is a national drive to protect 2,012 open spaces during the jubilee year, which is promoted by Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge.

The idea of protecting the two Poole sites has led to a truce taking place between the Parkstone Bay Association and Poole council.

They were due to go to battle over the association’s application to protect the sites from future development by designating them as an official town or village green.

Ken Beacroft, president of Parkstone Bay Association, said: “We’re very happy.

“This is a piece of open land that we’ve been trying to protect for quite some years and there have been various nibbles at it over the years that have concerned us.

“This plan seems to resolve that for posterity.”

He said several other areas were now looking at Queen Elizabeth II Fields in Trust status after the association raised it for Baiter and Whitecliff. “A lot of people are getting interested in protecting their areas,” he said.

Mr Beacroft welcomed the support of Poole council cabinet member Cllr Judes Butt over the idea.

Cllr Butt, cabinet member for public engagement and participation, said: “I am delighted with the superb local community involvement and the hard work by the Parkstone Bay Association.

“We seemed to have an insurmountable and costly problem with the Town and Village Green application, but due to the understanding and patience of the association and Borough of Poole, we were able to reach a very favourable resolution in an application for a Fields in Trust.

“This was agreed unanimously at full council, and is due to be rubber stamped imminently by the Fields in Trust office. “This is a true example of meaningful and proactive localism in action.”