A CAMPAIGNER has given up his fight to save a recreation ground from development after councillors rejected his bid to designate the land a village green.

Jim Haggett, of High View, Ushaw Moor, fought for five years against a housing development near Broom Lane, to be built by the Durham Villages Regeneration Company, which is partly owned by Durham City Council.

However, Durham County Council's licensing, registration and general purposes committee rejected his second application for village green status after hearing that a barrister said it did not meet legal requirements.

The committee, which last week approved an application for the Top of the Park area, at Consett, despite planning officers recommending it should be rejected, also refused Mr Haggett's call to defer a decision until the House of Lords considered a case from Oxfordshire that could have implications for his application.

The developer has already started building houses on the land and objected to the application for a delay. Planning officers had recommended refusal.

The developer's solicitor, Frances Clark, said a barrister who was experienced in village green applications said the land had not been used for lawful pastimes "as of right" and that it also failed the legal test for designation as it had not been used up to the time of registration.

"It is undeniable that the use isn't continuing as the whole site was fenced off during May and June of 2004," said Miss Clark.

Previously, the requirement was that the use had to continue up to the time of an application for registration but the Oxford case changed that to the time of registration.

Mr Haggett said afterwards: "I'm finished now. It was the principle of the thing. I thought we had a fair chance of registration.

"People don't want this development but the county council took no notice whatsoever of public opinion, just a handful of councillors and the developers."