The owners of a parcel of land on a Stoke-on-Trent housing estate are fighting efforts to make it a village green.

Residents in Meir Park have been up in arms over the privately-owned site off Canberra Crescent since autumn 2024 when trees on the land were chopped down.

Ward councillor Abi Brown subsequently applied to register it as a town or village green (TVG), which would protect it from future development. But landowners Nadeem Mohammed and Naseer Ahmed Fazal are objecting to the application, claiming that it fails to meet the 'evidential or procedural threshold'.

Elected members at Stoke-on-Trent City Council are now expected to appoint an independent inspector to carry out a public inquiry into the matter.

For a piece of land to be registered as a TVG, applicants have to show that people have been using the land for 'lawful sports of pastimes', as of right, for at least 20 years.

A total of 49 residents have supported the Canberra Crescent application by filling in questionnaires, with around half saying they have used the land in this way for 20 years or more.

In her application, Cllr Brown says the site is a 'well-used piece of land', and that while in general this use has been casual, there is 'some remembrance of semi-organised pursuits at the time of the original completion of the area'.

Cllr Brown says that some of the respondents confirm that they have been using the land since the 1970s, and points to documents from that period describing the development as a 'garden city'.

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In their objection, the landowners point to the fact that half the 49 completed questionnaires did not meet the 20-year requirement, meaning that only a 'very low number' of residents were able to testify to the usage of the site for this length of time.

They also claim that many residents use the land simply as a right of way, rather than as a village green.

The council commissioned independent inspector Annabel Graham Paul to prepare a preliminary report on the application. She concluded that there were no 'knock out blows' to settle the matter one way or another, meaning a full inquiry will be needed to make a recommendation.

The council's registration of town and village greens panel will be asked to approve the appointment of an inspector to carry out the inquiry when it meets on Friday.

The report to the panel states: "The appointed Inspector issued her preliminary report in June 2026 and did not consider that there was any clear knock out blow which would justify rejection of the application without further investigation and has recommended that a public inquiry be set up."

It is estimated that a two-day inquiry will cost the council around £14,000.