RESIDENTS battling to save an open space from housing have claimed a first victory, after a developer's plan to fell trees on the site was rejected.

Villagers in Blackfyne, Consett, are opposing plans to build executive homes on the former Derwentside College complex in Park Road.

They formed the Save the Prom campaign to protect the route, known locally as the Promenade, which runs along grassland called the Blue Heaps.

A separate group, Friends of the Blue Heaps, is fighting another plan to build 13 homes on the actual Heaps site, next to the college.

Campaign leaders celebrated after Derwentside District Council threw out a proposal to fell 65 trees in woodland next to the college and placed a blanket tree preservation order on the whole area.

Group spokesman Greg Coltman said: "People think it is a dubious attempt to thin out the trees so there is more daylight for the houses they are going to build."

Strathmore Homes, of Med-omsley, bought the site from the college in July and has outline planning permission for housing, but the Save the Prom group wants the proposals amended.

Council planning officer Fiona Clarke said: "We accept that there may be some management of the trees, but we thought the work proposed was excessive. Our only way of controlling this was to issue the preservation order."

Strathmore Homes director James Johnston said: "The woodland is considered to be an attractive feature to the proposed development and one which we intend to conserve."