While an alliance of council, government agency and health professionals oppose the registration of five acres of former railway land as a village green, the applicants expect a new three-day public inquiry to back their claim.

Council leaders have become infuriated by the length of the process and have called for the issue to be concluded.

In the second inquiry into the issue, the arguments will be re-run at the Lord Moreton at Gledrid near Chirk at an inquiry scheduled to last until Wednesday.

A previous inquiry held in October 2005 advised the county council that the green campaigners had not proved their case, but a fresh bid is now taking place following changes in the law.

One of the green group's leading campaigners, Mrs June McCarthy, claims a new public inquiry is unnecessary following the law change which ruled that 20 years of recreational use could not be nullified by the last-minute erection of fences or notices.

"It was the registration authority which called for the inquiry. Even if the applicants wanted to withdraw, which they don't, it cannot be stopped," she said.

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