Campaigners are fighting to save green belt near their homes from the hands of developers.

Wilsden Village Society is supporting Bradford Council's Unitary Development Plan (UDP) to retain farmland off Bents Lane, Wilsden, as green space.

Society chairman Chris Exley said the village was large enough and any green fields should be protected.

But retired farmer Albert Drake, of Lower Bents Farm, off Bents Lane, objected to the Council's planning blueprint and wants to sell his ten acres to a house-builder.

Mr Drake, 77, said the land, which stretches back from Harden Lane along Bents Lane, was proposed as a school site in 1960. "People may object to my proposals but there's no future for farming in this country any more and the land may as well be put to good use," said Mr Drake, who retired two years ago after running the farm single-handedly since he left school.

Mr Exley pledged the village society would fight "tooth and nail" to ensure the land was not touched by development.

"The infrastructure and amenities in the village couldn't cope with any more houses and for once we are in support of what the Council is suggesting," he said.

He said that when the village society first saw the draft UDP, members thought they were spared from unwanted development.

"We never imagined anyone would object to land being kept as green belt," he said

Councillor Simon Cooke (Con, Bingley Rural) said he whole-heartedly supported villagers' concerns.

The objection is expected to be discussed at the UDP public inquiry at Victoria Hall, Saltaire, on Tuesday.