CAMPAIGNERS who claim their human rights were breached when they were banned from a town centre are about to learn if their appeal has succeeded.

The Washington First Forum was set up to oppose plans by the City of Sunderland College to build a further education college on the sports arena, at Princess Anne Park, Washington.

Members claimed the area provided an important leisure and recreational facility, and set up a stall outside the shopping centre in the privately-owned town centre.

But its owners, the Prudential Insurance Company, banned the group from using the area to collect signatures on a petition, claiming it could not be used for political activity.

The forum said it seriously hampered its efforts, claiming it collected only 4,000 signatures from beyond the town centre borders because of the ban.

Sunderland City Council subsequently granted planning permission for the college.

After winning support from Liberty, the National Council for Civil Liberties, the group took its case to the European Court of Human Rights, last October. Now it has been informed that the court has made a judgement, and will publish it on its website at www.echr.coe.int, on May 6.

Robert Duggan, acting forum chairman, said: "A European Court judgement in our favour would be a big step forward in our efforts to save the sports arena from being lost to development.

"If we had been given access to our town centre in the first place, we could have collected sufficient objections to the proposed development, and Sunderland council probably would not have granted planning permission.

"We know that we have the overwhelming support of the people of Washington, but our campaign has been undermined by our exclusion from our town centre."

On May 19 and 20, the House of Lords will hear an appeal against Sunderland City Council's refusal to register the sports arena as a town or village green.

If it is successful, similar areas throughout the country will be protected from development in future.