A BID to have a college playing field registered as common land may be defeated when it comes under consideration next week.

Residents living in 40 homes surrounding New College Durham's Nevilles Cross site are backing an application to have the rugby field registered as a town or village green.

Durham County Council's licensing, registration and general purposes committee will consider the application on Monday.

But a report by the director of corporate services, Andrew North, recommends refusal of the application, pointing to its use as a rugby pitch constituting an interruption in use by local people.

Residents said it has been used for at least 40 years by locals to walk dogs, as a children's play area, for blackberry picking and other recreational activities.

The college has objected to the application saying that it has never been dedicated for general use by the public, and has been used by students as a rugby field, once a week in term time.

The college is to be centred on a single site at Framwellgate Moor next year.

Developer HJ Banks acquired the site from the college in July 1, having won planning approval to develop housing and offices on part of the plot last November.

The planning approval requires the playing field area to remain undeveloped, to stay in open and recreational use.

Professor Tom Shanks, who has applied to have the site registered, said granting village green status would act as a guarantee that no future developer would come back to seek permission to build on the playing field.

"This is one of the last green areas in the whole bowl looking out from the cathedral and this is the least that can be done to keep that green area intact, as an environmental and recreational facility," he said.

"A lot of green areas have been lost in the city and we don't think this is an unreasonable position to take."