A FURIOUS woman who took on the council to stop them digging up her green by sitting on it in her parked Citroen has emerged victorious.

Jubilant Kate Marsh took the fight to Nottinghamshire City Council with the help of a few of her fellow residents.

Kate Marsh, 52, parked her car on the green outside her house in order to prevent the council digging it up

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Kate Marsh, 52, parked her car on the green outside her house in order to prevent the council digging it upCredit: Paul Tonge
A tractor had already dug up some of the turf on Redruth Close

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A tractor had already dug up some of the turf on Redruth CloseCredit: Paul Tonge
Kate prevented another digger from doing more work

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Kate prevented another digger from doing more workCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Not only did the quick-thinking mum-of-two prevent the council from altering the residents’ beloved grassy area, she made the local authority do a complete U-turn.

Her vehicle protest, in her trusty red Citroen C1, led to bosses from the cash-strapped council putting the brakes on their project.

Kate, 52, declared: “It was victory for the people. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

“I thought to myself ’This is not going to happen!’

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“The council realised they had got it wrong and they should never have carried out the work without public consultation.”

Kate has lived in her semi in a delightful and peaceful spot in Bilborough, Nottinghamshire, for 17 years.

The senior home carer, speaking exclusively to The Sun Online about her triumph, said: “The green with just 18 houses dotted around it is so special to the people living here.

“We’ve watched our kids and the neighbours’ kids and grandkids play outside on it over the years.

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“It’s a safe space and like an extension of our gardens and we don’t want it turned into a play area for all.

“It is an ideal, perfect spot and we are so lucky to have it.”

She told how the drama unfolded outside her former council house in Redruth Close on Wednesday last week.

Kate said: “I came back from an appointment to see a large digger circling the grassy ares, and I thought ’That’s odd, where’s the sit on mower?

“The council mow and maintain the green, the kids play on it and the dogs run on it and we always keep it litter and mess free.

“I assumed the mower was broken. Then a neighbour ran over and said: ‘Have you heard what they are doing on the green?’”

Recalling her horror when she found out that it was being turned into a play area with grass being torn up to make footpaths, with benches, flowerbeds, trees , wood chippings and a red telephone box book exchange, she said: “No way!”

Kate then drove her car, parked on her front drive, onto the green and sat inside it having told the two workers: “You’ve got this wrong!”

She said: “I knew they wouldn’t be able to drive the tractor with me in the way. My gut instinct was to stop then and it worked!

“I was so scared that they would call the police and I’d be arrested.

“I told them ‘I don’t want this, none of us do. It’s not necessary, Why now, you’ve just turned up with no explanation or consultation.’

“It made me so angry.”

Kate got the result she wanted and the workers packed up and moved off as she warned them she would do another car blockade if they returned.

Finally Kate and some of her neighbours organised an emergency meeting with the council’s parks department.

A week later they learned, to their delight, that the scheme for “improvements” had been shelved.

She said: “They told us the project to be financed by a special parks budget would be halted because they had not followed the correct procedure.

“It should have been put in the public domain. There should have been letters and posters, with a right to reply, and a consultation period, but there was none of that.

“Now we’ve won, it feels great, amazing. It’s a victory for me and my neighbours. I’m proud of myself for stopping it.

“We’re super lucky living here and nearly all the houses around the green were dead against it.”

Struggling Notts City has declared itself effectively bankrupt and has approved cuts to jobs and services aimed at plugging a £53million budget gap.

Taking up the point, Kate said: “And they were going waste money on a play area no one wants. Such a waste now we’re bankrupt.

“If the green had been developed it would only have got wrecked by kids digging up plants and would be a magnet for youths hanging around and the library would get vandalised.”

The green and homes on the close were reportedly built in the wake of World War II and the grassed area has been unchanged for more than 70 years.

Neighbour Shirley Adamson, a retired accounts controller, said: “When Kate staged her protest in her car I went out on foot to support her.

“It was the only way to stop it and Kate was the best person for that.

“They just came a long and started digging up the turf without any consultation with residents.”

The mum-of-two, who relocated from Scotland here 23 years ago, said: “It’s a lovely area and all he kids have grown up here.

“It is peaceful and quiet and we don’t need any change here.”

Meanwhile, sisters Angela and Tupele Chitulu, who were visiting their mum who lives on the green, said everyone was “very proud of Kate’s action.”

Angela said: “Our mum came out to join her and show some support. Kate was parked right in the middle!

“The idea of a play area doesn’t go down well here especially when no one knew anything about it, and it would attract all sorts of people.”

Tupele added: “It’s not needed and the council has finally seen sense.”

It comes as residents living in a doomed new-build housing estate where noise from a nearby road is louder than a rock concert fought the council – and won.

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Meanwhile, another woman won her bitter legal battle against a callous council after a court ruled they wrongly moved her almost 200 miles away after evicting her from her home.

Lisa Paley, 40, was kicked out of her home in Waltham Forest, North East London, after her landlord decided to sell the property.

Kate and her car parked on the green

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Kate and her car parked on the greenCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Kate with one of her neighbours Shirley Adamson

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Kate with one of her neighbours Shirley AdamsonCredit: Paul Tonge

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk

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