THE Mayor of Wantage has admitted people may have been misinformed about the number of green spaces that could be saved in the town.

Steve Trinder said this week the number of meadows, fields and gardens marked for preservation in the neighbourhood plan – a document which outlines future development in the town – will have to be cut.

He was speaking after a government planning inspector rejected the plan because he said there was not enough evidence for its various policies.

The town council held an open meeting with members of the plan steering group on Wednesday last week to work out where to go next.

Mr Trinder said: "The meeting was difficult because there was a large section of volunteers who put their heart and soul into trying to preserve those green spaces.

"Perhaps they weren't as well-informed by us as they could have been, and perhaps we weren't as well informed as we could have been.

"Those people's hopes won't be dashed but they may be dampened.

"The number of green spaces will be reduced. That's a fact."

Mr Trinder volunteered to lead a green policies subcommittee to work out which green spaces can be proven to benefit the community.

He said: "I'm very green myself. It's something that needs looking at and it needs to be managed very carefully.

"It's about keeping Wantage as nice as possible for the future, making sure people have green space to walk and walk their dogs."

Neighbourhood planners are hoping the town council will be able to pay for a professional consultant who can advise on what evidence they will need to win an inspector over.

But the town council's finance committee will not make a decision on how much money it can afford until the end of September.

The steering group has already agreed to delete a policy that Wantage town centre should be extended to the south where elderly apartments are now being built.

Drawing up what is essentially a new neighbourhood plan is expected to take more than a year, at which point it will go to an inspector again.

That process will include two more town-wide consultations.

Neighbourhood plan steering group chairwoman Julie Mabberley said there was always a chance that at Wednesday's meeting, people could have decided that it was not worth going through the whole process a second time.

But she said: "The feeling at the meeting was that the community and the town council have invested too much time, energy and money to stop now.

"It was clear that these planning policies are important to Wantage and we shouldn't give up because the inspector didn't think we had enough evidence for some of our policies."

Anyone who would like to be involved in the plan should email wantagedeputy@btconnect.com