Grantham Christian Fellowship trustees have won back control of disputed land with development potential.

No record of Rev Fredrick Mann's gift to the scouts was recorded. Ownership has been in dispute for 11 years.

The court sided with the church against a previous ruling that the Scouts Association Trust had squatters' rights over the plot in Bottesford, Leics.

Kept tidy

Mr Justice Blackburne overturned the October 2004 finding of Clive Martin, deputy solicitor to Her Majesty's Land Registry, who decided the scouts were entitled to the plot.

The judge, who heard the new case at London's High Court, said Rev Mann came to his informal agreement in 1959, after his church, then known as Grantham Pentecostal Church, bought the land.

It dropped plans to build on the Albert Street site and Rev Mann agreed the scouts, who had a hut next door, could use the land as long as they kept it tidy.

They paid no rent and used it for games and camping for 25 years. The question of ownership was raised in 1994 when a new minister arrived.

The two sides then repeatedly clashed over who owned the land.