EARLIER this month protesters celebrated a ‘people power’ victory after a plan to build hundreds of homes on fields on the outskirts of Bradford was dismissed.

The result came after months of campaigning by a group of people who quickly became experts in areas where they had no previous knowledge.

The community around Cote Farm, Thackley, came together and fought off the plan, drawing on shared expertise, time and resources to maintain momentum.

It began last summer with a meeting, hosted by local councillors, after which a dedicated core team of six people was formed and arranged to meet every week.

“We have met virtually every week without fail,” says group member Isobel Burgess. “We are just normal residents with different backgrounds and strengths, and we discussed what needed to be done – things like who we needed to contact and inform, what research we needed to do and how to raise the profile of the campaign. At each meeting we went away with different tasks we had volunteered to do.”

Informing residents, many of whom may not have been able to make meetings or were unaware of the plans, was vital. Here, social media played an important role. “We put information and photos on local community Facebook pages and residents used Twitter to update each other,” she says. “We also put posters in local shops and signs on lamp posts.” An online petition attracted more than 1,000 signatures.

“A picture tells a thousand words,” says Isobel, explaining how the group took photos of features, including an ancient bridleway, which they posted on Facebook. Traditional door-knocking was also used. “We realised that some generations don’t use Facebook.”

High-profile public activities organised by the group included a community walk around the threatened fields and a traffic experiment. “Twenty people drove around a designated route over and over to simulate an additional 300 vehicles on the road,” says Isobel.

Car-shaped bunting was also used to demonstrate the traffic impact if the greenfield development went ahead.

Research involved looking into everything from the impact on school rolls and waiting lists to transport and wildlife habitats.

“We had to keep abreast of everything,” adds Isobel. “When the plans were revised we had to inform people. It has been a steep learning curve and there has been a real community spirit.”

Industrial chemist Martin Butters has lived in the area most of his life and raised his family there. “We forensically analysed all the paperwork the developer submitted, tackling every area – traffic, drainage and risk of flooding, heritage and conservation and ecology,” he says.

Liberal Democrat leader and local councillor Jeanette Sunderland, one of a number of councillors whose help was ‘invaluable’ to the group, says: “The group was thorough – they had to learn so much. You hear of developers spending thousands of pounds on legal teams. The Cote Farm group were not specialists, but they became specialists. Campaigns like this require people to come together and want to work together.”

Crucially helped by the councillors and their MP David Ward (Lib Dem, Bradford East), the group compiled their own detailed report into the proposal and submitted it to the planning committee, who voted against council officers’ recommendation to approve the plan. Adds Martin: “That was very important, and in the five minutes allocated to speak at the meeting I gave a powerpoint presentation. Using images clearly gets the message across.”

Despite the group’s hard work, Jeanette admits the decision could easily have gone against the campaigners. At the same meeting approval was granted for 500 homes to be built elsewhere in the district. “A few hundred yards down the road at Simpson Green, residents used the same arguments as us but lost, which is very disheartening,” she says, adding that the Cote Farm group should stick together and “retain their enthusiasm”.

Bradford Council is drawing up its Local Plan and campaigners hope the land will remain classed as “urban green space”.

The campaigners’ passion for their cause is clear. Says Isobel: “I felt so strongly about this that I wanted to stand up for what we all believed in.”

The group realise their battle is not over and the developers, Persimmon Homes, could appeal. “We want to say ‘Hurrah, that’s fantastic, but we have to be on our guard. We may have to do it all again,” says Isobel.