RESIDENTS have vowed to continue fighting a housing development which they say will deprive their community of an important green space.

The Leader reported last year how plans submitted by Glyndwr University to build 74 homes on playing fields at Dean Road in Rhosnesni were refused by Wrexham Council’s planning committee - despite recommendations from council officers that the scheme be supported pending a section 106 obligation.

After the refusal, the university called for a planning inquiry to be held over the decision.

Since then, a group named Friends of Dean Road Playing Field has been formed to continue opposing the scheme.

Its members told the Leader that following the refusal, a fence and signs were put up by the university to prohibit residents from accessing a large part of the field.

Chairman Bill Kelleher said the move had sparked “anger” in the community, as well as concerns for the safety of schoolchildren.

He explained: “There’s a gate at one end of the field and an entrance at the other.

“For the last 50-odd years, that field has been used as a through-way. It has been used by children going to and from school and people have been using it for sports.

“But now people can no longer use it and children have to walk the busy way to school - the footpath on Holt Road is very narrow and when the hedges are grown the kids are right at the edge of the pavement.”

Clint Lloyd, joint secretary, said: “I have gone from letting my children go by themselves to driving them - I don’t want them to walk.”

Mr Kelleher continued: “I have been here for 26 years and my children learned to ride their bikes on that field. They built snowmen on there, went to school through there. My wife and I have used it twice a day every day for 26 years. We have set up the committee to fight this.”

The friends group said Glyndwr University tried to have the site added to Wrexham’s Local Development Plan (LDP) in 2011, but Wrexham Council’s planning department had denied permission at that time.

Which makes the authority’s decision to recommend allowing the scheme puzzling, a spokesman said, as the group believes nothing has changed.

Members also believe the issue has been made more confusing for the community to follow by surveys and documents referring to the site in a number of different ways over the years, including a “brownfield site” which is located on land “north of Holt Road” - when they argue it is known by all as Dean Road Playing Field.

Rhosnesni Councillor Mike Davies said: “This development would mean the loss of valuable land.

“That land has history - we can go back to at least 1950s when it was being used by the public and for sporting purposes.”

The Friends of Dean Road Playing Field will be hosting a public meeting about the site in the coming weeks, on a date to be confirmed.

Mr Kelleher said the group has also taken steps to try to protect the site, which he said had been downgraded in recent years from a playing field to “amenity green space”.

Those steps, he said, include applying for a public right of way at the site, as well as for village green status.

Glyndwr University was approached by the Leader about the group’s concerns.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm that the university has submitted appeals over the refusal of planning permission on our land at Dean Road and Gatewen.

“Gatewen refers to plans for 112 homes on horse grazing land at Gatewen Road in New Broughton. These plans were refused at the same time as Dean Road.”

Wrexham Council was also approached for a comment.