A NEW Wellington-based community group is hitting out at the potential sale of a well-used area of the town.

Land near Tonedale Mills, known locally as Fox's Field, has been displayed on Greenslade Taylor Hunt's website for sale under 'informal tender' for a guide price of £80,000.

Wellington Mills CIC, which was founded earlier this year to encourage regeneration of the area, want to make the area a legal 'asset of community value'.

“This land has been an important recreational space for the local community over many years,” said Anita Roy, a director of Wellington Mills Community Interest Company who lives in nearby Springfield Road.

“People walk their dogs there, use the footpath as a shortcut to the Basins and the town centre, plus it’s a wonderful habitat for wildlife.

“Although the field is being offered for sale as agricultural land, when we saw the phrase 'long term hope value' in the estate agent’s brochure we realised that they were probably looking for a developer with a land-bank, not a farmer, as the potential purchaser.

“While there is a need for more housing, our group and its supporters are frustrated by the lack of regeneration at Tonedale 25 years after the factory ceased production.

"Those magnificent buildings have planning permission for over 200 residential units but virtually nothing has been done by the current owners or their predecessors and the buildings sit there becoming steadily more derelict.”

Estate agent Greenslade Taylor Hunt is asking for offers of around £80,000 for the eight acre-field which is being sold by Courtleigh Securities, the company that owned Fox Bros factory when it first closed 25 years ago. It has since sold the mill buildings to other developers but retained the two fields - which were once used by factory workers for football matches.

The GTH sale details offer potential purchasers the possibility of prospective profits, saying “this is a rare opportunity to acquire a parcel of productive pasture land situated on the edge of Wellington…. While at present the land is classified as agricultural due to its location it could well have some long term hope value and therefore could be of interest to investors.”

An online petition opposing the sale was started as soon as the sale details were published and now has 350 signatures.

I know people use it on a daily basis & have done for years,” said Gina Deacon, who launched the petition on Change.org.

“The impact of its loss, to not only the community but the wildlife and green space, so many enjoy for its peaceful tranquillity, would be immense.”

The application for registration as an Asset of Community Value grew out of the petition. An ACV is land or property of importance to a local community which is subject to additional protection from development under the Localism Act 2011. In some circumstances ACV registration can trigger a community Right to Buy.