Residents will be holding a street party to celebrate winning town green status for a field near their homes in Odsal, Bradford.

Councillors at yesterday’s miscellaneous licences panel overturned a public inquiry recommendation that the bid be rejected.

The decision delighted those who have been campaigning for more than 18 months to get the land at the back of Larch Hill Crescent officially registered as a town green to protect it from future development.

Brian and Lindsey Pearson, who have lived overlooking the field for 32 years, said they and their neighbours who had all passionately believed in the campaign were “over the moon”.

Mr and Mrs Pearson had put in the application after another resident on the estate dug up and fenced off the site with a padlocked gate, inspired by a television show detailing how unloved land was turned into allotments.

Damon O’Brien had told the public inquiry how he decided to take adverse possession of the site after legal advice and seeing Hugh Fernley-Whittinstall do the same.

“My dad said the back field could be used for that,” he told the hearing.

Last month the Pearsons’ bid for town green status looked set to fail after barrister David Manley QC, leading the public inquiry, recommended refusal because evidence it had been used recreationally by locals for 20 years and more was limited and failed to meet all the necessary criteria.

However, the panel yesterday decided they had heard enough evidence, including that of the Pearsons that they and other residents had enjoyed the land for children to play in, for dogwalking, blackberry picking and annual bonfires, until 2011 when it was closed off by Mr O’Brien.

The land had been left undeveloped after housebuilders from the 1950s went into receivership and never constructed the garages originally intended there.

Bradford Council leader and Wibsey ward Councillor David Green, who had backed the town green bid since it started, said: “We’re delighted with the decision. It’s been 18 months of hard work by the local community and 18 months of uncertainty for them.

“I hope we can now get on with getting this land back to its proper use for everyone to enjoy.”

Mrs Pearson added: “We'll have a street party to celebrate. We are over the moon. With the summer holidays coming soon, it’s great to know the children will have somewhere safe to play again.”