ANGRY residents are protesting against the prospect of housing developments being built on green and open spaces.

Citizens in Dalton have united as they believe places of beauty and wildlife habitats are at threat of being bulldozed to make way for residential properties.

Barrow Borough Council’s Draft Local Plan has listed three ‘greenfield’ locations around the town among its “preferred options” for future development.

A petition has been set up calling for the council to reconsider naming the fields at the junction of Long Lane and Newton Road, fields at the top of Crompton Drive, and land east of Greystone Avenue as locations to build houses on ahead of the end of the Draft Local Plan public consultation on September 4.

Petition organiser Liz Colver, of Barnes Avenue, Dalton, said: “With the way things are going we could be joining up with Barrow pretty soon as well as Newton.

“We are saying why does this borough need 2,000 plus new homes anyway? The population has dropped by four per cent and is projected to continue dropping.

“The crossroads of Long Lane and Newton Road is a wildlife corridor full of hedgehogs, lots of birds, badgers and foxes. We want to keep the green.

“At the moment they are not proposing to build on the whole of each site, just a small area of each, but we are worried that once the precedent has been set it’s not going to stop there.”

Other concerns have been raised around the viability of the three greenfield sites if they are ultimately earmarked for development, including drainage, flooding, and traffic congestion.

The Local Plan, once complete, will set out the council’s vision for growth and planning policies for 2016 to 2031.

The plan is currently at the draft stage, and feedback from the public will be taken into account before the final version is published next year.

A Barrow Borough Council statement said: “The draft sets out what the council thinks are the main issues facing the borough, lists policies which have been formulated from a range of options put forward in the previous draft and identifies preferred sites to be allocated for development.

“We welcome comments on the draft so please let us know your views. The consultation period is open until 4pm on Friday September 4.”

Ms Colver is urging planners to focus housing developments on brownfield sites, land which has been used for industrial purposes.

The Dalton greenfield petition can be signed at The Brown Cow and The Newton Arms pubs.