PROPOSALS to enhance and develop a park rescued from the threat of bulldozers are up for discussion.

The area near Chapel Beck, in Guisborough, was spared from development last month when Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council acquired the former Blackett Hutton foundry, in Rectory Lane, to develop into council offices.

Had that purchase fallen through, the council's back-up plan involved the felling of trees at the Chapel Beck site to make way for a car park.

That idea met with strong opposition from local residents, who within days formed a protest group.

The protestors held a public meeting and submitted a petition containing more than 6,000 signatures to the borough council.

At a meeting of Guisborough Town Council on Thursday night, Ted Amos, chairman of the Beck Side Protest Group, addressed the council over the future of the park area.

He said he had held a meeting with Dr Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who backed the residents' campaign, together with borough council leader Councillor David Walsh, to discuss what could be done to safeguard the beck area.

The proposals suggested involve getting preservation orders for the trees in the park and also extending Guisborough's conservation area to cover the beck.

An idea to get a covenant to preserve the land proved to be unnecessary, as the beck's inclusion in the conservation area would safeguard it. At present, the conservation area's boundary lies just outside the beck area.

Mr Amos told the council: "A 6,000-signature petition wants that land to stay in the hands of the people, and the stronger support we have from the council, the better."

Councillor Brian Whiteley, chairman of the council, said: "It is quite important that we do get some sort of conservation scheme, and get planning permission for something in the future."

Borough councillor Keith Pudney reminded councillors that planning consent on the beck referred only to the application by the council.

He said: "It doesn't have blanket planning consent - it never had and it never will.