Guisborough is gearing up to fight plans to use park land for an office car park.

A flood of objections has followed Redcar and Cleveland council's scheme to develop land at Rectory Lane for one of its own departments.

Last Thursday, members of the policy and resources committee agreed to proceed with disposal of the site for developing council offices.

This is in case an alternative site at Blackett Hutton is not available on commercially acceptable terms within a deadline which expires at the end of this month.

The open space is next to a former council highways depot and was designated as park land by the former urban district council in the 60s.

But as negotiations for the Blackett Hutton site have dragged on for two years, the borough council earmarked Rectory Lane as a possibility for its own offices.

The community, though, is furious.

Protesters say open space should not be disposed of and that brownfield sites are available for development.

Guisborough Town Council discussed the issue last month and was set for more debate at last night's meeting.

Coun Anne Franklin said she had been inundated by calls about the piece of land. "Many people are very upset," she said. "There will be trouble over this. A lot of green land will go and it is disgusting to take so much green space away from Guisborough. We don't have much now."

Coun Keith Pudney said: "It is a way of putting pressure on nearby landowners by showing we do have other options."

Coun Bill Clarke said he would like to see the council offices in the town. "But we can't have that until that land is taken up and used by the borough council.

"I would be the first to organise some kind of movement to stop them from using that land," he said.

The borough council has had objections from individuals and organisations. These include town councillors, the civic society, cubs and scouts and the Guisborough against more building on open land (Gambol) campaign.

Lord Gisborough has also weighed in, saying: "To destroy urban park land surely goes against every modern effort to green up our towns."

He called for a public inquiry before any further commitment to the scheme.

In June, outline planning permission was granted for office development and car park.

The policy and resources committee was told the site was surplus to requirements and had been vacant since 1999. But they also heard that most of the surrounding land was established open space.

A report to the committee said: "Members will need to balance objecters' concerns about the loss of open space against the benefit of achieving relocation of the offices and securing financial help from the government."

The council's director of economy and environment, Dr Joan Rees, said: "A decision on which site will be made by the deadline and negotiations are still ongoing.