PROTESTORS are celebrating after plans to use a popular grassland area for executive housing suffered a major setback.

Planners at Derwentside District Council are recommending that the authority rejects an application by Derwentside College, on behalf of developer Strathmore Homes, to build 13 houses on the Blue Heaps, in Consett.

The area has been used as a local amenity for decades and residents were shocked to find out it was privately owned, when the college sold the land to Strathmore Homes this summer.

Householders formed an action group to fight the plans and sent a petition of 213 signatures and 55 letters of objection to the district council.

Reasons for objection include access to the proposed estate, which would be opposite Blackfyne School and could endanger pupils.

Other residents feel that the Blue Heaps is home to protected wildlife, including badgers, bats, butterflies, amphibians and plants.

A report to the council by planning officer Darren Cummings agrees with the protestors, saying that the proposals would take away a public amenity.

Greg Coltman, 27, one of the action group leaders, welcomed the move. "I think it is a really brilliant decision," he said. "The planners have really come out on our side for once."

The protestors gather for the final push in their campaign tomorrow, at 3pm, with a public meeting at The Stables, Durham Road, Consett.

It will be a last chance for residents to air grievances with Mr Coltman, who has been chosen to represent the action group at the council's planning committee meeting in Consett Civic Centre on Thursday.

"We want to represent everybody democratically at the council meeting, so we want to get all their views before we go in," he said.

"Also, we have had a large amount of support from the local community and it will give us a chance to thank them."

The Blue Heaps was formed from blue shale deposits extracted during the mining boom of the 19th Century.

It became an infamous part of the area's history in 1858, when it was the scene of a battle between local iron workers and a growing Irish immigrant population brought in to provide cheap labour