WITH regard to the matter of the application for Town Green status for Branksome Rec (Echo May 6) being taken to Judicial Review by the Campaign for Planning Sanity, I think three key points need to be made.

Firstly, seeing as the Rec would seem to be strongly protected by Poole Council’s own planning regulations it is hard to see why the Council should want to oppose an application that will embed in law the council’s objectives – protecting the Rec from development.

The responsibility for costs of further legal process therefore surely falls squarely on Poole Council opposing its declared objectives.

That then leads to the second point – the democracy of the whole matter. In Branksome West there has been a very strong swing to the Lib Dems who opposed PTFC relocation and supported residents’ subsequent Village Green application.

This is then clearly a resounding call to Poole Council to wake up and listen to what residents are saying.

And the third point, as Chris Maile explains, the issue is not just Branksome Rec but other applications in Poole, and hundreds country-wide. The issue needs resolving in law.

It is if you like akin to 16th century Commons Rights which were progressively lost to 18th/19th century Enclosures Acts.

That is what CPS is seeking to prevent – developers taking over our common land.

JEFF WILLIAMS, Jubilee Road, Parkstone