RESIDENTS could lose the right to roam in woodland they are fighting to protect, because the landowner says it is too dangerous.

Householders in Blackhill, Consett, are fighting to save 65 trees on the former Derwentside College site.

Local developer Strathmore Homes, which bought the land from the college this summer, has applied to thin the woods that borders the site, because they say some trees are in danger of falling down.

On Thursday last week, Derwentside District Council issued a detailed Tree Preservation Order (TPO) to protect the woodland at a development control meeting in Consett Civic Centre.

James Johnston, director of Strathmore Homes, said some of the trees are in a poor state and need to come down to protect the public.

"We have asked whether this order relates to those trees that are in a poor or dangerous condition," he said.

"We are worried that one will fall down on a member of the public. This has no bearing on the area for housing development, as the woodland was never part of that in the first place."

He threatened that residents would be excluded from the area if the TPO continued.

"If the trees are going to be left unsafe, we will have to protect ourselves by not letting the public anywhere near them."

Since the summer, residents in Blackhill have been locked in a separate struggle with the same company, which wants to build executive homes on a nearby piece of scrub land called the Blue Heaps.

The firm withdrew its planning application for the scheme at the eleventh hour last month, after the county highways department objected to the proposed vehicle access to the estate.

Residents fear the felling of the trees could pave the way for a fresh road access to the Heaps - and a fresh planning application.

Protester Greg Coltman said: "We feel they want to do this not to maintain the woods, but to put more houses on, or to create a new access road onto the Blue Heaps."

Planning officer Simon le Jeune said the door was open if Strathmore wants to re-apply.

"We are not against good wood management or the taking out of some trees if there is a sound need to do so," he said.