A COMMUNITY group has asked councillors to back their fight to bring a treasured green space back into community use.

Speaking at the Area One Committee meeting on Monday, Wanstead Society member, Valerie Sayers, asked the six councillors who represent Wanstead and Snaresbrook if they support the group's planning application to turn the Evergreen Field in High Street, Wanstead, into a public space.

Chair of the meeting Cllr Chris Cummins said: "We do believe that it should come into community use and to be incorporated into Christchurch Green.

"I have seen the Wanstead Society's application and it does support the view we have."

Mrs Sayers then asked if the councillors would write to the chief executive of the council, Roger Hampson, requesting the field be put on a list of Redbridge's community assets.

"It would give us strength," she added.

Cllr Alex Wilson said: "We have to be careful because some of us sit on the committee that will decide on this application and any other applications."

Cllr Peter Goody, who was absent from the meeting on Monday, sits on the Conservation Advisory Panel and on planning committee west.

Cllr Chris Cummins is the chair of CAP and sits on the regulatory committee and cllr Alex Wilson sits on both the planning committee west and regulatory committee.

The Wanstead Society have written to Roger Hampson to ask if Evergreen Field can be added to a list of community assets under a clause in the Localism Act.

Evergreen Field was bought in May by Dalco Developments Ltd for £200,000 and has not been open to the public since the 1960s.

The field is already protected by the council's open space policy and cannot be used for housing.

The Conservation Advisory Panel will make their representation on the group's application tonight, but a date is yet to be set for a final decision.

Under planning law anyone can put in an application for land they don't own.