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Our goal is to protect the Village Green at Tongfields, long enjoyed by our community, from destruction for executive housing.
Hi all, hope everyone's having a great summer!
We are Dunscar Residents Association, and we are fighting a legal battle to protect our local Village Green, long enjoyed by our community, from destruction for executive housing by a for-profit developer.
Properly registering this Village Green - which should have been done decades ago - is essential to protect it for generations. And this means battling well funded legal professionals as a team of laymen volunteers.
We are still dealing with preliminary legal issues, with our latest legal missive (and this sentence shouldn't exist) being last week's rather catchily titled "Response to the Objector's response to our response to their objections to our application".
We're aware this is going to be a drawn out process, and the developer's legal team seem to be dragging this out further, wearing down our team of volunteers and our pro-bono legal support.
That won't work - but we do face a bigger threat. They are clearly throwing time and money against this team of volunteers, and we definitely need proper legal support to make a good showing - and win - the coming Public Inquiry.
To do that, we need to fundraise!
We have the right barrister on our side, and currently working for free - but this isn't feasible for the actual inquiry, which could mean our barrister staying here for some two to three weeks to prepare and argue our case with the Inspector.
We believe we have a very reasonable offer for this commitment, and we believe a very good chance of winning this decision - but our team of volunteers cannot pay these costs ourselves, and we fear with them dragging everything out, these coming costs will only increase.
Our legal campaign goal, covering the inquiry with a little contingency - is currently £15,000.
It seems a lot, but we believe it's a bargain for the Village Green we stand to gain and protect for the future!
This case appears to be unique, as we applied to register this Village Green just a few short weeks before a developer filed plans to destroy the green for a major housing development. We're aware of no other cases where a Village Green application and a major development application are running at the same time for the same site, and the stakes could not be higher - if we lose our case, then we won't be able to try again for another twenty years, and the site would be forever altered!
Our pledge is that all monies will be spent on our DRA campaign to protect our Village Green, and monies not spent will used to improve our local area (with community approval).
Our vision is to protect this Village Green in perpetuity - and to make it a hub of community activity, a haven of green space in an increasingly urban environment, and a place for children to thrive.
This project raises funds for a legal dispute. Neither Crowdfunder nor the project owner can guarantee its outcome, that it will be resolved, or that the amount raised will be enough to see it through. Even a favourable result may be appealed or overturned.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 4th October 2026 at 12:39pm