THE village green at Southlands in Tytherington has effectively been a green since the houses were originally built – decades ago.

So it is good news that South Gloucestershire Council decided to grant it protected village green status to prevent any developments infringing on it.

The green is a fabulous place for children to play. Shielded from traffic on all sides it provides a safe place for local children to use.

If Merlin had gotten their way and part of the area was used as an access way for a new housing development, then half the attraction of the green as a safe play place has been lost.

However this was only half the battle. As it stands Merlin want to demolish four of the houses in Southlands to make way for their new 10-home development and preventing that will be a much tougher ask.

South Gloucestershire Council is trying to get new housing developments built wherever possible, seemingly, and with government inspectors with no connection coming in over the local council’s heads and granting permission there seems to be very little that can be done.

It’s about time that housing developments on brownfield sites became more prevalent rather than developments that are built where no one seems to want them.

Maybe if the regulations needed to be fulfilled for development on these sites were relaxed slightly then there would be more of an incentive for developers to consider these sites for new homes rather than turning the county’s towns and villages in to large housing estates.