Campaigners fighting to save historic playing fields are celebrating after Bradford Council confirmed the land will not now be sold off for housing.

The Horsfall athletics track and stadium in Low Moor had been earmarked for sale and development to fund the long-awaited Odsal Sporting Village.

But the news that its future has been secured has been welcomed by those battling to keep it for community use.

Robert Clunas, chairman of the Save Horsfall Playing Fields campaign, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Council has finally decided that Horsfall Playing Fields will no longer be part of the development of Odsal Sporting Village. We never objected to the development of Odsal, but to the use of public playing fields to fund it.

“We are delighted with the outcome. We have always said the fields should be maintained for public use in perpetuity. The Council has been very embarrassed by this because they have had a group of people who set up in opposition to them. We hope to set up a Friends of Horsfall Playing Fields Group which will enable the Council to draw down funds to better the facilities there.”

Don Earley, deputy chief executive of Fields in Trust, the operating name for the National Playing Fields Association, confirmed that his organisation had a contract with the Council after making grant aid available 70 years ago to help create the community playing fields.

He said: “It has always been the position of Fields in Trust that Horsfall Playing is for public use and any change of use would have required our consent. But in the circumstances we are pleased to see that Horsfall will remain and support efforts to find other funding for Odsal Sporting Village.”

Plans for a sports village at Odsal have been on the cards for a number of years and funding the scheme through the sale of the playing fields for housing had long been a possibility.

Last December Sports Minister and constituency MP Gerry Sutcliffe criticised any plan to sell off Horsfall Playing Fields for housing to fund the Odsal redevelopment as a “complete” folly as the National Playing Fields Association would not sanction it.

Today the Bradford South MP said: “We have always maintained that the playing fields should be part of the wider sports village plan and should be improved. I am delighted with this confirmation that Horsfall Playing Fields will not be sold off for housing.”

Both Councillor Adrian Naylor, the Council’s executive member for regeneration, and Phil Barker, the Council’s assistant director for leisure services, confirmed that the sports village and Horsfall housing plan were no longer linked.

Mr Barker said the Odsal plans were now considered as a new scheme and that Horsfall simply was not part of the mix any more. He also said that changes in the way such projects are funded has altered the picture.

Coun Naylor added: “We have got a workable project that doesn’t require Horsfall Playing Fields as a financial contribution to make it work. We have an opportunity to put a project in place that is realistic and can be delivered in a short space of time.”

A progress report on Odsal Sporting Village is due to go before a meeting of the Council’s executive next Tuesday. It details how partners throughout the district are working together to try to secure a high quality sports and leisure facility which would form a southern gateway to the city and provide a venue for a host of sporting, cultural and leisure events.

Coun Naylor added: “This sports village would revitalise the sport provision for the district and provide a state-of-the-art venue for a wide range of sports organisations.”