PROTESTERS angry at the closure of a playing field in Little Lever have handed a petition with 350 names to the council demanding that it be re-opened.

But they fear their campaign to save the King George V playing field, near Mytham Road, Little Lever, has already failed.

The field has been used by villagers for years, but a fence has now been erected around it by Little Lever Sports Club to stop residents using it.

The land is now being used by the football and rounders club, whose members want to stop dogs fouling the pitch and youngsters riding motorcycles across it. Villagers want the field to remain for public use and argue that the land was bequeathed to them in 1936 one of 476 plots in the country dedicated to the memory of the late King George V by The King George's Fields Foundation.

Sean Hornby, of Marsh Road, Little Lever, said: "The playing field is supposed to be public land and available for everyone to use.

"We hear so much about children being unhealthy and obese these days, but theyve taken away the one place where our children could exercise. If the council wont open the field up fully, Id like them to consider joint use of the land. We really need some green space in Little Lever, and sharing the land would be better than no land at all."

Another resident, June Warburton of Aintree Road, said: "There is a lot of ill-feeling in the village about losing the field. A generation of children will have nowhere to play."

Bolton Council, which backs Little Lever Sports Club, has suggested residents use a different field in Stopes Road, Radcliffe, but the campaigners have rejected this idea.

Mr Hornby said: "The replacement field is a bog, and its completely waterlogged.

"It isnt fit for anything at all, except maybe building on. It certainly isn't good enough for children to play on."

A spokesman for Bolton Council said: "The council recently advertised its intention to go ahead and dedicate the land on Stopes Road, Little Lever, as a King George V playing field.

"Four responses were received, including the petition, none of which were objections to the dedication of Stopes Road."