VILLAGERS fighting council proposals for a massive housing development on greenfield land near their homes have pledged £10,000 to a "fighting fund".

The Earswick Action Group met on Monday evening - with more than 100 villagers as well as parish councillors, the city councillor Paul Doughty, and MP Julian Sturdy, and decided to work on a legal challenge to the Local Plan.

The action group's spokesman Allan Charlesworth said they were delighted with the amount of money promised to help fund the court action, which takes the group half way to its target of £20,000 needed to fund the court action.

He said they were delighted with the support people in the village had shown. The meeting was attended by 140 people from the village from 120 homes - nearly 30 percent of the households in Earswick.

As well as the legal challenge, the group is now talking to a professional planning consultancy about producing a comprehensive response on their behalf to the next public consultation on the Local Plan.

Mr Charlesworth added: "Residents were very upbeat and made a collective commitment at the meeting to oppose the inclusion of Earswick as a ring-fenced site in the Council landbank to be 'safeguarded' for future housing development."

He said the residents at the meeting gave the action group mandate to start talking to city council officials about their objections,and gave their support to a parish proposals to prepare their own Village Plan with acceptable levels of development for the village.