PLANS to build seven homes on the site of a playground in a South Lakeland village have caused outrage among people living close to the proposed site.

For decades people living in Burton-in-Kendal have spent time and money maintaining a playground in a field at Church Bank on the edge of the village for local children.

Burton-in-Kendal Parish Council leases the field from South Lakeland District Council. But recently Workington-based housing association Impact Housing has requested permission to build on the site.

The association wants to build five affordable shared equity homes for first time buyers and two bungalows for elderly people and move the playground to a different part of the field.

It says that an SLDC survey of housing needs has identified the Burton-in-Kendal area as being in desperate need of housing for young people and families who are unable to afford their own homes.

But local people have launched a campaign to prevent the site being built on. They say that over the years they have raised thousands of pounds to pay for playground equipment and have also volunt-arily spent hundreds of hours maintaining the site. And they fear that the increase of traffic in the area once the homes have been built will make the neighbouring streets more dangerous.

On Monday, dozens of angry parents and children braved pouring rain to gather in the field in protest at the plans.

Mum-of-two Valerie Yeadon, 42, said that the field had been used as a play area since the 1960s, and was a place where children could play in safety while being watched by their parents. She feared that if the playground was to be moved from its present site it would be harder for local people to supervise the children playing in the field from their homes.

"Everything done here is by the residents of this village. It was work that was carried out volunt-arily over the generations," she said. "Our children have played here since they were born but once the field has gone, it has gone. They will have somewhere to play but we won't be able to see them from our houses." But the chief executive of Impact Housing, Mike Muir, said that the housing was desperately needed for the village.

"We are not getting rid of a playground. There will be a new play area and there will be a lot of consultation.

"The difficulty is in finding a suitable site. The site we have found is not regarded by the parish council as ideal - but they acknowledge that there is no other site available that is anywhere as good as that one.

"In our view this is a compromise; there are some problems with the site but we think we can get round all of these," he said.

SLDC Planning Officer Barry Jackson said that the application would be heard at a meeting of the planning committee on November 3; he would recommend that members postpone their decision until a site visit had been made.