CAMPAIGNERS fighting controversial plans to build 57 houses on green belt land in Horsforth face their D-Day next week.

Hundreds of residents have signed petitions and written to object to Redrow Homes' speculative planning application to build the houses on green belt land off Outwood Lane in Horsforth.

Now the plans will be considered by city councillors on the west development control panel at Leeds Civic Hall next Tuesday - and campaigners fighting the plans are urging them to throw the planning application out.

MP Paul Truswell said he believed the campaign against the plans had won council backing, following a meeting with planning chiefs.

"While the matter has still to be considered by the committee, my discussions with Councillor Jim McKenna and planning officers have left me feeling pretty confident that the council will oppose the application.

"There appeared to be clear sympathy for retaining this green space and the continuity of the designated Local Nature Area, as well as recognition of the potential hazards of generating even more traffic on Outwood Lane," said Mr Truswell.

Redrow have also appealed to the Department of the Environment because the council has not yet taken a decision on the application. A public inquiry is likely in the spring.

Mr Truswell said the community needed to remain vigilant, even if council support was confirmed.

"We may win the first round in this planning battle by securing council support, but there is still the public inquiry to tackle.

"There has already been a welter of well-argued submissions from residents, and these will be made known to the planning inspector at the inquiry, but it is important when the time comes that the community reaffirms its case alongside the council to present the broadest possible objection to the proposal."

The chairman of Horsforth Town Council's planning committee and Horsforth Civic Society, John Brodwell, said that the council should not approve the plans because the area was designated open space in the local plan and it was similarly designated in the draft Unitary Development Plan.

It is also part of the Kirkstall Valley Park and at a planning inquiry in 1985 a bid to change the use of the field to residential was refused.

Horsforth councillors Brian Cleasby and Chris Townsley (both Lib Dem) said that the development had to be stopped 'at all costs'.

A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council confirmed that the application was likely to be discussed at next Tuesday's meeting, but at the time of going to press it was still unclear whether the plans were recommended for approval or refusal.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.