Residents of Broadhurst Grove are still hopeful they will be able to protect their village green after a council error meant it lost control of the land.

As previously reported, the open space in Lychpit had been protected by a section 52 agreement, meaning the developer would have to hand it over to the council for public ownership.

But after Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council delayed enforcing it for 40 years, the land was sold on at auction and it now looks unlikely the council will be able to use section 52 to force the new owner to hand it back.

But residents of Broadhurst Grove, who had banded together to try and bring protection to their village green, have vowed to not give up the fight and have "high expectations this will be resolved".

They fear the land will be developed, ruining space they use as a "community hub" and affecting foxes and deer that can often be seen walking around the estate at night.

Sheena Grassi, who has recently been co-opted onto Old Basing and Lychpit Parish Council, has been campaigning for almost a year to ensure the space remains undeveloped.

Talking about the moment she heard about the BDBC error, she told The Gazette: "I think we were appalled at first but then we regrouped and brushed ourselves down.

"I think [BDBC] have really started to sort things out. It is nonsense that they thought they could not get this land back.

"They have been maintaining this land for 40 years."

"Everybody had thought it was over," Cllr Gill Moore, another resident of Broadhurst Grove, said.

"I am not sure they know what the solution is yet. It is probably down to the Neighbourhood Plan."

The group of residents are now looking at several different ways that they can get their land back, including an application for village green status, looking at rights of way and also applying for it to be listed as an asset of community value.

"It will protect it and give us the option to buy it. There are quite a few things we are doing ourselves," Cllr Grassi continued.

The village green at Broadhurst Grove, which is cited by Hampshire County Council as best practice when building estates, was the brainchild of former council chairman Betty Holmes MBE.

Cllr Grassi added: "This is what she had in mind.

"She designed this village green down to where the trees were going.

"This was Cowdery's Down and they wanted a biodiversity area that was ahead of its time so that animals could live here."