VILLAGERS in Eastington are fighting to save a treasured patch of grass from development.

Campaigners claim that children have played on the strip in Swallow Croft for more than 20 years and say adults regularly mow the grass as a gesture of goodwill to the community.

They have now applied to register the land as a village green in the face of plans to turn it into an access route for proposed new houses. The strip was named ‘Sophie’s Pitch’ after Sophie Pegler, 14, who lives opposite, a keen footballer whose dream is to play for the national women's side.

"It’s been a good place for me to train," said Sophie, who attends the FA Gloucestershire Girls' Centre of Excellence and is a pupil at Rednock School.

"When my mates come over for football we have a kickabout on there.

"There’s no other real place where little children can go without being accompanied by an adult."

The land, which measures about 30 metres by 10 metres, was once part of an orchard but now has no known owner.

Villagers began the campaign to save it about 18 months ago after developers Kempton Ltd applied to use the strip for an access route to four houses.

Ken Nicholls, 66, who lives opposite and says he has mown the grass for years, applied to Gloucestershire County Council in May asking for the strip to be registered in law as a village green.

He submitted 11 witness statements from villagers who said they had either played on the grass as children or helped maintained the strip over the past 20 years.

"There’s no other place for children to play safely in Swallow Croft," said Mr Nicholls, a grandfather-of-four and retired college lecturer.

"We think it’s important to the community."

However, Simon Firkins, planning consultant for Kempton Ltd, claims that it is only in recent months that the strip has been used by children and maintained by nearby residents.

"I have got photographs going back 18 months showing that the grass on this piece of land was 18 inches high and I can’t see how children could have played there," he said.

He claimed the application for village green status would probably fail, saying the strip was too small.

He added that the developers were entitled to use the strip for vehicle access because it had been advertised in local newspapers and no one came forward saying they owned the land. A public consultation on the application by villagers finished on Thursday.