CAMPAIGNERS are making a last attempt to save recreation land from a housing development.

A fresh application has been made to have land near Broom Lane, Ushaw Moor, registered as a village green before the bulldozers move in.

Durham Villages Regeneration, a company set up by Durham City Council and Doncaster developer Keepmoat, is building 146 homes on the 11.5-acre site.

Work started in 2002 after Durham County Council rejected an application by residents to have the land designated as a village green, which would have stopped any development.

They are now applying again after a ruling by Law Lords, in November, that a sports arena at Princess Anne Park, Washington, should be designated recreation land, blocking plans for a sixth-form college on the site.

Campaigner Jim Haggett said one of three parcels of land that make up the Ushaw Moor site was already being developed, but residents hoped to save a field that had once had children's play equipment on it.

Mr Haggett said he thought the Law Lords ruling would apply.

"I am hoping to save the recreation field. The other two we can't do anything about," he said. "It belongs to the children of Ushaw Moor and the city council had no right disposing of it.

"The developer apparently paid £600,000 for it but that doesn't alter the fact that we can still register it. If the law is to be upheld, the development should be stopped. We believe we have a decent case."

The city council has said the development will help breathe life into the village but opponents say open space is needed more than housing.

Mr Haggett said that after the city council granted itself planning permission, the inspector who chaired the public inquiry into the council's Local Plan recommended the development be scrapped as there was no need for it.

A county council spokeswoman said: "We have received a request to review the application and will do so in due course."

A spokesman for the city council said: "We did everything to the letter of the law and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was more than satisfied with our approach.

"The profits from the housing are earmarked to go into the regeneration of the area."