Campaigners fighting proposals for housing developments across Bradford district have welcomed proposals for a joint battle against the Council.

Heaton Township Association is urging a re-think on Bradford Council’s planning strategy, which could see thousands of homes built on swathes of green fields in the district.

Chairman Elizabeth Hellmich said the group hoped to start a petition at a meeting later this month and was urging campaigners against similar proposed schemes to join the fight. Terry Brown, chairman of Greenhill Action Group (GAG), which faces its own fight against proposals to build 475 homes off Sty Lane, Micklethwaite, said: “If the petition is, essentially, to get the Council to re-think their development policy, then its purpose crosses the boundaries of a number of groups.”

The Reverend Canon Gordon Dey is spearheading a campaign against developers building 2,000 to 5,000 homes in the Tong and Fulneck Valley green belt between Bradford and Leeds.

Bradford Council earmarked the area, along with others in Micklethwaite, Menston and elsewhere for development in its replacement Unitary Development Plan (RUDP), following public consultation, in 2005.

Mr Dey, chairman of the Tong and Fulneck Valley Association, said there was “common ground” between the groups.

He said a representative from the group would attend a joint meeting organised by the Heaton Township Association on Monday, January 24.

He said: “There has got to be a balance between an overall concern for the green belt and for each groups specific area of concern.”

Menston Action Group, which is campaigning against plans in Derry Hill and Bingley Road, said the group would support joint action with other campaigners.

Mrs Hellmich has organised the meeting for 7pm on Monday, January 24, at Heaton St barnabas Village Hall in Ashwell Road, Heaton.