Brixham land 'jigsaw piece' to be sold for just £1

Sold for less than the price of a loaf of bread!

A decades-long campaign to preserve a public open space in Brixham could receive another boost next week - for the price of just £1.

Torbay Council’s cabinet is likely to rubber-stamp the sale of the last piece of the Wishings Field jigsaw for less than the price of a loaf of bread.

Brixham’s fight for the field dates back to the early 2000s when developers tried to snap it up for housing. Locals said the field had been used by local families as a recreation area for more than 60 years, and a government planning inspector agreed with them.

In 2010 the land was registered as a village green to keep it safe from development, and a long programme of maintenance and improvements began.

Then in June 2022, with developers circling again, Brixham Town Council bought the land at auction to make sure it stayed in public hands.

Now the cabinet plans to let the town council have the last piece of land, a small area that leads off Mudstone Lane and into the north east corner of the field. it had been blighted by fly-tipping over the years, but local people and the council have tackled the problem while tidying, trimming and planting.

If the cabinet agrees to the £1 sale next week, it will no longer have to maintain the area. There will also be a third accessible footpath leading into the field.

A restrictive covenant will be in place to ensure that the area remains a public open space.