The bids are in – maybe – for the forested land that North Langley residents consider a neighbourhood park.

On June 29, bids closed for a series of properties in Glen Valley, at 252nd Street and 84th Avenue and in another cluster at 260th Street and 84th.

The information about any bids will be given to Langley Township council at their July 23 meeting, said Scott Thompson, the manager of property services.

The council will be able to consider any and all bids received before the end of last week, during a closed in camera meeting.

In camera meetings are used to discuss legal and property-related matters.

Once council has made a decision, it will be made public.

The council has three options. They can accept one of the bids as presented, and sell the land, or they can reject all of the bids and try to sell the land again, or they can reject the bids and take the land off the market.

The Township was trying to sell the land to raise money to pay for a community centre in Aldergrove.

However, Glen Valley residents objected to the sale of the land, saying it has long been promised as a park for their neighbourhood. The land was acquired in tax sales between the 1920s and 1940s, and has been largely left in its natural state ever since. It contains some of the oldest stands of coniferous trees in Langley, and locals have made walking and mountain biking paths through the forests.

In the late 1990s, locals objected to the council cutting down some of the trees there, when it was proposed that some gravel be extracted from an old pit on one property for diking work.