Campaigning villagers are facing an agonising wait to find out whether their local playing fields are likely to be saved from housing development.

Members of the Jenny Lane Action Group hope a legal showdown in the House of Lords will pave the way for the Baildon playing fields to get village green status.

An application has been made to Bradford Council to have the church-owned site registered as a village green, which would protect it from development, but no decision will be made until the result of a test case, brought by an Oxfordshire parish council, is known.

An application to register a ten-acre open field in Sunningwell, Oxfordshire, as a green was turned down as its public use was not deemed to be "as of right''.

Five independent Law Lords have now heard evidence from both sides - Sunningwell Parish Council, which says the site should be a village green, and its owner, the Church of England's Oxford Diocese, which has applied for permission to build two homes on it. But it could be up to three months before they deliver a verdict.

Julia Donaghue, secretary of the Baildon action group, said: "We're waiting with baited breath for the ruling on the Sunningwell case."

The Jenny Lane group says the site should become a village green as it has been used by people as a playing field for years without the permission of its owner, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds.

Part of the site was originally designated Green Belt but after representations from its owner and a public inquiry it was earmarked as housing land in Bradford's Unitary Development Plan.

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