Parents in Shipley who fought to save their children's play area from being sold for housing now plan to register it as a village green.

To get village green status, they first need to collect proof that the field between Pratt Lane and Kitson Street has been used by the community for at least the past 20 years.

Campaigners want to hear from anyone who uses or has ever used the field to help them compile a file of evidence which can be used to help them turn the land into a green and guarantee it will stay development-free forever.

Councillor Phillip Thornton (Lab, Shipley East), who is submitting the official application, has urged people to send him memorabilia, photos and letters that can go in the file ready to start proceedings in the New Year.

Earlier this year residents feared Bradford Council was going to sell the field it owns and claimed their children would be forced to play on the roads if the sale went ahead.

The residents, who collected a 70-name petition, vowed to fight the sale every step of the way. They finally breathed a sigh of relief in November when members of Shipley Area Committee decided not to pursue selling the site for the time being and to let it continue being used by locals as a play space.

Council officer Richard Schofield said at the time that the committee would not be making a definite decision on the future of the site until Bradford Council had carried out a survey to find out whether the area already had too much or not enough open space for recreation.

Coun Thornton said today even though the area committee's decision had lifted a great weight off the Windhill community the only way to guarantee the land would stay development-free would be for it to become a village green.

"We want to get cracking with this in the New Year," he said. "So anyone who has got photos or who can write with their memories or how they use the land nowadays needs to get in touch with me so we can build up proof that it's used by the community. The land is already registered as open space in the Unitary Development Plan (Bradford Council's land-use blueprint) which gives us a good start. But the fact that terraced houses were once on the site means it could be developed again at some point unless we get it registered as a village green."

Grandmother Kathryn Kelly, 58, of Pratt Street, one of the 70 residents who signed the petition to save the field, is delighted with the effort.

"It's brilliant news," she said. "I've lived in this street for more than 20 years and I've always known kids to play on it. It's somewhere for the kids to go where they don't pester the neighbours and where parents can easily see them. It stops them from straying off to find somewhere else to play where they could be at risk."

To get village green status an application has to be lodged with the Council and a period of time given for people to object. If there are objections, the bid then goes to a public inquiry and inspectors make a report on their findings which go to the Council's Licensing Panel for a decision.

The Council's head of asset management Mike Bell said: "The land between Kitson Street and Pratt Lane in Shipley is managed as open space and there are no plans to sell it for development. If an application for village green status is made for the area, the Council would consider its position as owner of the land in light of the information provided."

Anyone with information to support the bid should send it to Coun Thornton at Shipley Town Hall in Kirkgate or at City Hall in Bradford.