Residents look set to fail in their bid to have land next to a major new Carlisle housing scheme declared a new village green.

Council insiders believe the application is an attempt to hinder the development on land next to Windsor Way, Newfield Park, where Persimmon has approval for 277 new homes.

A barrister hired by Cumbria County Council is now urging the authority's Development Control and Regulation Committee to reject the village green proposal for California Lane, which borders the development site to the north of Carlisle.

If approved, it would give Persimmon a major headache because village greens are protected from development.

Carlisle City Council's principal planning officer Angus Hutchinson has objected to the village green idea, saying would " run counter to” the Persimmon development and harm future development.

“In effect,” says “it is considered that the proposal (by hindering access from Newfield Drive and Park to the adjoining land) would undermine investment in homes, jobs, other potential services... and the overall public interest.

The man behind the application, resident Charles Stevens, says California Lane meets the legal requirements to be a village green.

The law states that such land must for a period of at least 20 years, have been used for lawful sports and pastimes by a significant number of local inhabitants of a local community, in this case Newfield Park.

To support his application, he includes 44 supporting statements.

In these, residents confirm that they have used the land in question for walking, dog-walking, brambling, and bird watching.

But in his advice to councillors, barrister James Marwick argues that no neighbourhood had been properly identified by the applicant; that a significant number of people had not used the land in question; and that land had been used only as a footpath, and not for sports and pastimes.

In his conclusion, Mr Marwick writes: “No part of the application site should be registered as a town or village green and I recommend that the application should fail.

"I am satisifed that this decision can be reached without a public inquiry.” Belah county coucillor Alan Toole objected to the original Persimmon housing development, arguing that the roads network in the north part of Kingstown Road would not be able to cope with the additional traffic.

“We think it's going over the top,” he said. “I think some of these developers are going to have their fingers burned when they put these new houses up for sale. They're not going to sell all these houses.”

Councillors will vote on the village green application tomorrow.