RED-faced councillors were forced to apologise after they had to make a U-turn to avoid a costly legal battle over whether to award a small copse village green status.

In an action branded a “sad day for democracy”, planning committee members heard they faced an £80,000 High Court wrangle if they failed to scrap a decision made in September.

Winterslow Opposed to Over Development (WOOD) took Wiltshire Council to the High Court for refusing to make Browns Copse a village green under the Commons Act. The group applied for the land to be permanently open for community use, claiming it had been used for “lawful sports and pastimes” for more than 20 years.

The row over the copse and an 11-acre field both owned by farmer Richard Sheppard and his wife Patricia has raged for almost five years, after Mr Sheppard revealed plans to build housing on the field.

Villagers strongly opposed the idea and formed an action group to fight it. Using the Commons Act, they sought to protect the land from development.

A five-day inquiry with 63 witnesses heard the land had been used for dog walking and blackberry picking for 20 years.

An inspector recommended awarding Browns Copse village green status, but not the field which was mooted for housing.

But Wiltshire councillors refused, citing a lack of evidence.

They said the farmer had put up ‘private property’ signs in 2009 – before the 20 year cut-off.

But the Southern Area Planning Committee on Thursday heard there had been a error in reaching the decision.

WOOD challenged the decision, and council lawyers warned it would be overturned.

Cllr Richard Clewer said: “If I look at the evidence, I still don’t see anything that undermines the logic of the decision we made.”

Officers came under fire for not having given better advice.

Mike Hewitt said councillors had been “badly served” and the legal position should have been made clear from the start.

Winterslow councillor Chris Devine said he had warned this would be the likely outcome and voted to award village-green status with “a heavy heart”.

The vote on whether to overturn the decision was split fourfour until committee chairman Fred Westmoreland exercised his casting vote to grant Browns Copse village green status.

“I apologise Mr Sheppard, I apologise Mrs Sheppard and I apologise to WOOD that they have had to go through so much to do what they did,” he said.