Residents are battling to save a centuries-old wood from the chop.

Developers have planning to build 150 homes near to ancient Judy Woods, in Woodside, which campaigners claim will have a devastating effect on the historic site's ecology.

Members of the Judy Woods - Save our Heritage Campaign, have collected more than 3,000 signatures from people in the area opposing the plans.

Outline planning permission has been granted for the housing development which will be built mainly on private land on a local farm and on some council land.

The application for planning permission has been submitted by local farmer Gerry Martin, who owns Royd Hill Farm where much of the site is to be built upon. Mr Martin has submitted his application in conjunction with the council as part of a consultation going back more than ten years to find suitable housing sites in the area.

The development itself is just off of Fenwick Drive and will run very close to Woodside Primary School.

Debbie Fitzpatrick, one of the campaign organisers, said: "There are plenty of other places that could be built on that are not such an important part of the area's heritage.

"The area has fantastic wildlife and should be conserved, not built upon.

"I have always had the woodland in my life, ever since I was little, and now my three children enjoy them. To think this may be taken away from them is quite tough to take."

The woodland is named after Judy North who lived in a cottage near Horse Close Bridge in the 1850s and 60s - the actual woodland appears on maps dating back as far as the 18th century.

Records from the 12th century show a landowner called William de Swilington cultivated woodland in the area and many ancient highways between settlements around Halifax and Bradford criss-cross the woodland. Any woodland dating back before 1600 is officially classed as "ancient".

Colin Duke, of Woodside, has spent the past few weeks preparing the petition and contacting local councillors and wildlife groups to support their campaign to preserve the woodland.

He said: "Judy Woods is home to unsurpassed views and wildlife and is a vital and important part of the heritage of people in the area.

"Two years worth of construction is bound to distract and disrupt work at the local primary schools and the extra cars on an already struggling infrastructure.

"Our intention is to get the development stopped have this area protected as a local nature reserve or a countryside park.

"It seems crazy to be thinking of putting a lake outside city hall when there's a perfectly good one here."

Mr Duke is currently drawing the Yorkshire Wildlife group's attention to the development and hopes that they will endorse the campaign to save the woods.

A spokesman for Bradford Council said: "The site concerned is near Judy Woods but is not part of the woodland itself. It was allocated for housing development in the adopted Unitary Development Plan in 1998.

"This decision was backed up by an independent inspector in 2003, following a public inquiry into the status of the site. The inquiry was carried out as part of the replacement Unitary Development Plan which is likely to be adopted later this year.

"A strip of land along the road belongs to the Council but the majority is privately owned. Some of the strip was handed over to BCHT, as part of the housing stock transfer, but is being returned to the Council. The Council is now in discussions with the family which owns the other part of this plot of land over a joint sale of the whole site."