Fears grew today that housing estates in Bradford will become "concrete jungles".

It has emerged that Bradford Council is considering selling off pockets of green space to builders.

The plots of land scattered across the district are believed to be worth about £7 million but cost the Council about £2 million a year to maintain.

Now their future is under review as the Council examines the best way to manage its £10 billion portfolio of land and assets. All councillors have received letters seeking their views on the sites in their wards which are under review.

The Council has stressed the process is in its early stages and no decisions have been taken but some groups are already drawing up battle lines and telling the Council: "Hands off our green spaces".

Protests are growing in Wyke, Delph Hill, Thorpe Edge, Greengates and Odsal and ward councillors are also meeting residents elsewhere.

The controversy has flared three months after the estates were transferred by Bradford Council to Bradford Community Housing Trust.

The Council retained land on the estates when it sold 26,000 houses to the trust, which has guaranteed to spend £175 million on improvements over the next five years.

Now the Community Association for the Regeneration of Estates (CARE) is fighting to keep land at Ruffield Side, Delph Hill and St Mary's Gardens, Wyke, as green space for the community.

Liberal Democrat Idle ward councillors Jeanette Sunderland, David Ward and Ann Ozolins are objecting to any attempt to sell sites under review at Thorpe Edge and Greengates.

And deputy leader of the Labour group Councillor Dave Green said he was concerned about sites in his Odsal ward at Netherlands Square and Smith Avenue which are under review as well as implications for thousands of other residents across the district.

CARE chairman Mike Stocks said the sales would deprive children of play areas and turn estates into "concrete jungles".

Councillor Robert Reynolds (Con, Wyke), who is also a director of Bradford South Community Housing Trust, is also objecting to any sale of Ruffield Side and St Mary's Gardens which are in his ward.

He said: "The Council has a duty to the tax payer to retain pieces of land and assess their commercial value. Quite rightly the department is just doing its job.

"However there will be pieces of community green space where there would be a severe negative impact if they were sold for residential build.

"The land at St Mary's Avenue is just such an area, where houses look on to the square from all four sides and it is used daily by young children."

Harold Ellis, 67, who has lived at Ruffield Side for 30 years, said: "My children and grandchildren have played there. We would hate to lose this land."

Coun Ozolins said she objected to the disposal of two sites in Thorpe Edge and one at Brunswick Road, Greengates, named in the review.

"They want to sell the family silver," she said.

Today, the Council's asset management director, Linda Carmichael, said: "A number of sites throughout the district have become surplus after the housing stock transfer.

"We will be consulting other organisations such as public utility companies as well as other Council departments to establish if they are suitable for housing or other development. Sites will be valued individually once our consultation has been completed.

"Open areas of land can become liabilities and development can often improve the environment and reduce the risk of eyesores while, for example, providing housing to help meet local needs."

CARE has urged people to attend its next meeting at Wyke Christian Fellowship Hall, Towngate, Wyke, on Wednesday, June 4, at 7pm.