Angry Bradford residents have lodged a petition against a planned housing development which they believe will drive vandals and bored youngsters into historic Undercliffe Cemetery.

Bradford Council has agreed to sell the site of former Undercliffe Middle School, in Undercliffe Old Road, to Manningham Housing Association subject to planning permission being granted.

The housing association has submitted a planning application to build 18 homes.

But neighbours fear the development, which involves demolishing a popular playground on the old school site, will drive bored youngsters into the Grade II listed cemetery.

Geoff Pelham, of the Westfield Crescent Residents Association, the group campaigning against the proposal, said: "We have sent a petition against the development to Bradford Council.

"The land is the only place the kids have got round here to play on. They always play football and cricket on there.

"Also the site provides an access point to the cemetery and this could be taken away."

Professor James Stevens Curl, one of Britain's leading authorities on Victorian architecture and art, told the Telegraph & Argus last month that he was worried the development could cause damage to monuments by children forced to play in the cemetery.

Colin Clark, a founding member of the Undercliffe Cemetery Charity, which runs and maintains the cemetery site, said: "This development would cause dangers to children living in the area as they would lose their play areas and would be forced into playing in the cemetery.

"They will have no other place to play and the cemetery could well become an adventure playground.

"For me this will really start the rot and the cemetery will go down from here."

Councillor Alan Hillary (Lib Dem, Bolton), who sits on the charity's board, has written a letter objecting to the plans to the head of the Council's Transport and Planning Department.

Linda Beckett, senior planner in Bradford Council's planning department, said a decision on the planning application would be made next month.

Among the 23,000 people buried in the 25-acre cemetery are the first Lord Mayor of Bradford, John Arthur Godwin, and Charlotte Bronte's nursemaid.

It was recently declared by the Heritage Lottery Fund as the best-kept and one of the most important cemeteries in the north of England.