A FIGHT by villagers to prevent open land being fenced in looks likely to end in victory.

Councillors will be recommended tomorrow to declare the half-acre field a village green.

Seven families in The Hollow, near Howden-le-Wear, spent £4,000 on a legal battle with neighbour Fred Wilson over the land.

They camped on it to stop him putting fences around it and took their case to a public inquiry in Crook last December, which resulted in independent barrister Vivian Chapman recommending the village green designation.

Members of The Hollow Residents' Association and their families told the inquiry that the field had been used by children playing, by horse riders, for bonfire parties, and by dog walkers for more than 20 years.

Mr Wilson claimed that he had inherited the land from his late father, although he could not produce the title deeds.

In a report to Durham County Council's licensing and registration committee, Andrew North, director of corporate and legal services, said that the inspector concluded that Mr Wilson had done work to the land.

"In the inspector's view, none of this materially interfered with use of the land for informal recreation by local inhabitants," he said.

"Indeed, it made the land more rather than less suitable for such recreation.''