PEOPLE young and old staged a demonstration today calling for green space in Thackley to be saved from development.

Around 30 people waved placards outside City Hall before the start of a six-day public inquiry into a controversial housebuilding scheme.

Persimmon Homes had applied for permission to build up to 270 new homes at Cote Farm, off Leeds Road.

But one campaigner, Isobel Burgess, of the Cote Farm Action Group, said at their protest that this would see them lose "the only green fields and green space left in Thackley".

Perhaps the youngest campaigner was Miss Burgess' niece, eight-year-old Evie Baraniak, who said she was worried about the horses which used the land.

Councillors had originally refused permission for the scheme, despite Bradford Council's own planning officers recommending it for approval.

Persimmon has now taken the matter to appeal, and a Government planning inspector will now hear the arguments in favour of the scheme, as well as those against it.