FISHGUARD and Goodwick town councillors have voted against supporting St Mays Field as an area of green space for the local community.

After heated discussions at their January meeting, the majority of councillors voted to object to the registration of the field as green space, saying that they did not have enough information on the proposal and that there was no evidence on how the land would be maintained if it was made into a community green.

The meeting heard that the field was owned by St Mary's Church, Fishguard and had been leased to Fishguard Sports AFC for a number of decades.

Councillors heard that the church wanted to sell the land to develop social housing, which would retain an element of green space.

However, an application had also been made by a local resident to grant the area village green status which would prevent further development. The council, as statutory consultees, was asked to comment on this.

Councillors heard that there has been some dispute as to the ownership of the land and as to whether there had been enough community activity to qualify it for village green status.

The meeting came out of standing orders to allow county councillor Pat Davies to contribute.

"There is no doubt that the church owns that field," she said. "The church can't afford to maintain that land. They can't afford to cut the grass. We have to face facts that no children play in that field."

She added that over the years she had tried to get the church and the residents to speak to each other about the issue.

"You can see their point and you can see the church's point that they can't afford to maintain it," she said.

"If there is a strong feeling in the community that the community wants it to remain as an open green space there will be an inquiry."

Some councillors felt that they did not have enough information on the issue to respond.

"We are making ourselves look foolish to vote on something we haven't seen," said Cllr Nicola Gwynn. "We can't vote on supporting or not supporting something. We haven't seen the evidence."

Councillor Paul Mason said it was not fair to ask the town council to make a point either against the local people or the church, while mayor Jackie Stokes said her personal feeling was that the land belonged to the church 'then they should be able to do what they want with it'.

Councillors were also concerned that, if the land was to be a designated village green, the council would be saddled with its maintenance.

"Who is going to maintain it?" asked councillor Edward Perkins. "It's us, nobody else will. You've got to have machinery that can cut the grass and keep it all up. "In Pencaer we've got four commons. They are all head high in brambles and trash."

Councillors voted six in favour of objecting to registering it as a village green and three against.

Since the meeting, town clerk Cath Bannister has asked Pembrokeshire County Council for sight of the official application package, which is currently only in Fishguard Post Office and therefore, difficult to view.

She has also asked for an extension on the closing date for comments of January 27. However, that extension would need the agreement of the applicant and the church.