Campaigners in the battle for green belt joined a protest walk against proposals to build thousands of homes on fields between Bradford and Leeds.

Bradford Council has earmarked the green belt land in the Tong and Fulneck Valley as an area which may be developed with up to 5,000 new homes.

Residents, who have formed the Tong and Fulneck Valley Association opposing any development, say the land forms an important rural barrier between the two cities.

They fear the area’s sense of community may be lost if development is allowed on the green belt.

About 30 walkers (pictured) – wearing Save Tong Fulneck Valley T-shirts – joined the protest walk over three miles of land under threat.

Association chairman, The Reverend Gordon Dey, said: “This walk is to raise awareness of the stunning countryside in this area. We are wanting to both embrace it now and protect it for the future.

“Bradford Council has decided that this is a place where developers could build up to 5,000 houses and we want to make sure that no green belt land is used for housing.”

Mr Dey said the authorities in Bradford and Leeds had recognised the importance of keeping the open landscape as far back as the 1800s.

He said: “Tong and Fulneck are two very important historical communities and this land protects those communities, their identity and values.”

Proposals to build on the area, bounded by the ancient woodland of Black Carr Woods, were first raised as one of four options in the Local Development Framework (LDF).

The LDF is a folder of local development documents replacing the Unitary Development Plan, outlining how planning will be managed in the area.

In the document, Bradford Council has to state its options to accommodate up to 50,000 homes by 2026. Public consultations have taken place and the Council says it is committed to the regeneration of Holme Wood.

It intends to publish the preferred option later this year.

John Muddiman, 36, of Holme Beck Park, joined the association in November 2008, after the Council unveiled its strategy. He said: “I am very concerned about Bradford Council’s proposals to build in the valley because it will be real destruction on a large scale.”

Joan Greenfield, of Knowles Lane, Holme Wood, said the valley was an important area of natural countryside. She said: “People from there walk in the valley regularly. I would hate to lose it.”