Missing deeds may settle planning row

The hunt is on for the deeds to land next to a former Penkridge residential home to help settle a building row.

Residents say the site is one of the last pieces of open space in the village and belongs to its people for recreation.

South Staffordshire Council is reviewing letters and petitions received in response to its proposal to sell-off green, open space by the former Silverdene residential site in Tildesley Road. Under the proposal, the land would be sold off to South Staffordshire Housing Association.

Extra care facilities for the elderly would be provided under the scheme.

This has sparked a petition of more than 700 signatures and over 100 letters of objection being sent from the village.

Villagers believe the land, which once belonged to a wealthy vet, Edward Straiton, was dedicated for the use of the people of Penkridge when it was donated to Staffordshire County Council.

Susan Comrie, aged 46, a solicitor who has lived on Chestnut Grove opposite the site for 11 years, has paperwork showing the land was dedicated on June 30, 1971 and conveyed to the county council on October 9, 1979 but has been searching for the deeds to find the terms of the dedication.

The unregistered deeds should confirm whether South Staffordshire Council is able to sell the land but the district council has confirmed it has either lost the deeds or never had them all in the first place.

She said: "The dedication document is the one that is so important to the locals because they thought, even before we had knowledge of its existence, that Mr Straiton had donated the land to the village.

"The fact that the council cannot produce the documents has rather upset them.The use of the land will be subject to the terms of the agreement."