CAMPAIGNERS fighting to prevent a developer building on two open spaces told a public inquiry the land had been used as a local amenity for decades, qualifying it for designation as a village green.

Residents who want to save the Blue Heaps and Top of the Park in Consett, argued the community had used the land for a range of leisure pursuits

But solicitors for Strathmore Homes, which bought the land from Derwentside College - along with the former college site at Aynsley Terrace - said any use of the land had been 'trivial and sporadic.'

Planning inspector Charles George, who presided over the inquiry at Consett Civic Centre this week, will make a recommendation to Durham County Council on the future of the sites.

Strathmore won planning permission to build 90 executive homes on the old college site in 2002, but withdrew proposals to build 13 more on the Blue Heaps in the face of public opposition.

Under English law an area that has been used as a local amenity for more than 20 years can be designated as common land.

Resident Helen Steadman, who made the applications, said she had gathered evidence from 80 people who regularly used the sites between September 1982 and 2002.

Among the activities she listed were children's adventure games, blackberry picking, nature walks, dog walks, picnicking, camping, horse riding and rambling.

The use had never been interrupted and no permission was ever needed.

She said the Top of the Park had originally been part of what was Consett Park - which had been given to the people of Consett by the Consett Iron Company at the end of the nineteenthcentury. The land was transferred from the council to the college in the Sixties.

Resident Greg Coltman, 29, said he had played on both sites almost every day after school and later used them for nature observation.

Lay magistrate and resident Diane Stobbart said she and her children had used both sites since the Forties.

Matthew Caswell, representing Strathmore Homes, said the firm had been assured by the district council in the form of development brief that the main site was eminently suitable for development.

He said there had not been a 'single whisper by anyone' that the sites in dispute were subject to common right as a village green.

He added evidence collected from December 2001 to July this year, including diary entries and 150 hours of video evidence, showed use of the sites was sporadic.