RESIDENTS are protesting against plans to build houses on an area of open space and replace it with a much smaller area.

Developers Dysart, part of the Project Genesis initiative, set up to revive the former steelworks site in Consett, wants to build 79 homes next to Templetown.

Residents in the village's three streets of Alwyn Gardens, Knitsley Gardens and Temple Gardens, are angry that the proposals include the removal of a recreation area and replacing it with one less than half the size.

Julia Pollard, 48, of Knitsley Gardens, is secretary of the Templetown Residents' Association.

She said: "It came as a shock. It has been there for many years and is part of the community."

Residents do not want to lose the field, which they say has been used for sports and play time by local children for more than four decades. Up until the mid-1990s, there was also play equipment on the land.

Mrs Pollard, who has three daughters, Isabella, nine, Jolene, eight, and Kathryn, six, said: "When we formed the residents' association last year, improving the field was the thing people felt most strongly about."

Derwentside District Council's development control committee will look at whether to grant the scheme planning permission at a meeting early next year.

But the council has already encouraged developers to build hundreds of homes on the old steelworks, in a bid to regenerate the town, and is likely to look favourably on the application.

Protestors have gathered more than 40 signatures on a petition objecting to the plan and are due to present it to the district council's executive director, Mike Clark, today.

Council leader Alex Watson said: "There is an issue about the size of the play area, but that will be discussed further.

"This scheme has not got planning permission as yet, but it is in an identified area for development."

He said there would be several bonuses if the scheme goes ahead, such as new fencing for the allotments.

"This is not a case of bulldozing anything through," he said. "We have to strike a happy balance so everyone is satisfied. The door is certainly not closed."