Villagers battling to save a beauty spot have recruited a Lord to their ranks.

Labour Party senior statesman Denis Healey - Lord Healey of Riddlesden - has spoken out in support of East Morton residents in their fight to stop a landowner barring access to Sunnydale Glen. And Bradford Council has come under fire for delaying an application - first made five years ago - to designate the area a right of way.

Villagers say the glen has been a picnic spot and a place to walk for generations.

But owner Lewis Robertshaw, of Upwood Hall Farm Cottage, West Morton, says it is working woodland for free-range partridges and that villagers are trespassing.

Leading the campaign is 68-year-old Roy Willoughby, of Otley Mount, East Morton, and his daughter Anne Manning, 36, of Stockbridge, Keighley.

Almost 60 villagers say they have walked the wood in the last 20 years.

And Lord Healey, 83, who was brought up in Riddlesden, has provided written evidence of his connection with the area. In it he says: "I walked the path around the period 1926-1945. I did not see any signs or obstructions indicating there was not a right of way."

And speaking from his home today, he recalled how it was even under threat from being used by a paper mill in the late 1920s. Lord Healey, who mentions the wood in his autobiography, said: "The area came under threat when I was a boy aged about 12 and I wrote in my diary that 'industrialism was stretching out its grimy hand towards it.' It would be extremely sad if it was no longer accessible to the public."

Villagers are now faced with a number of signs pinned to trees, saying "No Permissive Footpath Exists". And the path has been blocked at the far end of the wood.

Mr Willoughby said the path was not on the Ordnance Survey map but was an established route.

"It's a disgrace that it has taken so long to do something about it. That area has been a picnic spot and place to walk for generations. I have used it for 50 years."

Mrs Manning added: "This is part of our heritage. It should not be taken away like that. I have used it as a child and it should be there for future generations."

But Mr Robertshaw said there was no right of way through the wood and that fences to keep people out had been pulled down.

"We have tried to stop them walking. It is a working woodland where we hold partridge shoots. We are concerned that they are disturbing the birds."

A Bradford Council spokesman said the route ran across privately owned land and was not a registered public footpath.

"An application was made in 1995 aimed at designating the route a Public Right of Way. Unfortunately, due to work pressures and other priorities, including the need to carry out an extensive survey of the district's whole right of way network, officers have been unable to process this application."

He said they hoped to reach a decision later this year.