Valuable allotments earmarked for a practice range by a Birmingham golf club could have been saved if council officers had heeded legal advice, new documents show.

Attempts by Birmingham City Council to block Moseley Golf Club's plans to develop the popular Billesley Lane Allotments ended in failure in January 2003 when a Government inspector rejected an attempt to compulsorily purchase the land.

At the time council officers claimed they decided against continuing their opposition following advice from Thomas Hill barristers in London which suggested a further legal challenge would also be fruitless.

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But documents obtained by The Birmingham Post shows the barristers had in fact thought there was a "reasonable" chance of success.

An email also shows the then Moseley city councillor Bryan Nott, who was only a handful of people to see the advice, describing the decision to back down as "devastatingly wrong".

Quoting directly from the barristers' findings, he said: "I would conclude that there is at least a reasonable prospect that a fresh inquiry might result in a different outcome.

"This falls far short of the pessimistic view I was expecting. Nothing suggests that it is not worth fighting on.

"I think it would have been difficult for a barrister to be more positive at this stage."

The email was written by Coun Nott, now Mr Nott, in March 2003, at a point when the golf club, which owns the disputed land, had already claimed victory in a public inquiry into a city council attempt to compulsorily purchase the plots for the allotment holders.

Two months later the Government ruled the decision was 'flawed' but council legal chiefs stood by to their decision not to issue another CPO, citing the barristers' advice.

The outcome was a compromise between the council and the golf club which gave the majority of allotment holders until yesterday, Christmas Day, to leave the site.

Plot holders were furious at the deal which led to the golf club allowing the allotment association to keep one acre of land for just 14 years. The 48 plots on the site are to be turned into 23 half plots. The remaining land will become a practice range.

Geoff Bainbridge, the chairman of Billesley Lane Allotment Association, said his colleagues had accepted the compromise deal as they had little choice without council support.

Coun Martin Mullaney (Moseley Lib Dem), who unearthed the document under the Freedom of Information Act, has also seen the barristers' advice, but is prevented from disclosing the details under council rules.

He said: "This shows that the plot holders were badly let down by the then Labour-run council who should have been fighting their corner until the end."

The tug-of-war between allotment holders and the golf club saw 17 years of courtroom battles and a #200,000 legal bill.