Staines residents to take Spelthorne Council to ombudsman

On September 17, residents heard the issue on whether to keep the green and 26 areas of land growing wild was due to be held at meetings on December 8 and December 15.

But on the eighth, residents were due to go to the meeting, until a neighbour said he had just received an email.

Helen Weston, of Millers Close, said: "We all got ready until a neighbour came out and said he had sent a confirmation email to someone at the council asking if the meeting was going on, and got a reply saying they had already been held. We were absolutely fuming because Spelthorne did this without telling us.

"After the new year we are seriously considering going to the ombudsmen."

Mrs Weston felt the council were using 'underhand' tactics to not tell the campaigners, but the council have assured that it was just a human error.

Mrs Weston said: "I contacted the council, and they said it was just a typing error, so we asked for the minutes, which said the campaigners knew of the dates, and had not campaigned further. Why would we create a petition if we weren't going to campaign anymore? We did know of the dates, they were just the wrong ones."

Through not cutting the grass, Spelthorne hop to save £40,000 a year on maintenance costs for ten years, but the residents were originally worried the area, which was used as a play ground, could become dangerous due to fly tipping and rubbish being left.

A spokeswoman for the council said: "The mix up with dates was just human error.

However, a meeting will be arranged in the New Year to discuss the issues with the residents. It will be well in advance of the new grass cutting season."