OPPONENTS of plans to build a new school on land at Towneley Playing Fields have reacted with fury to news that a fence is being put up on part of the site.

Lancashire County Council is to start work on building the 1.2 metre high fence around the playing fields it owns next week saying that it is needed to prevent dog fouling and unauthorised access from cars and motorbikes.

But campaigners said the land had been used as public space for generations and it would now be lost as a public amenity.

The playing fields are used as sports pitches by pupils at Unity College, currently based on the former Towneley High School site, and community sports groups.

But the area has never been fenced off before and has also been used by dog walkers, kite flyers and as a general sports area for the community.

The fence will surround land owned by the county council on the other side of the River Calder from the current school site in Towneley Holmes Road.

Last month campaigners fought a public inquiry to try and stop the new Unity College being built on land at Towneley, arguing it would mean a further loss of green space.

Lancashire County Council wants to build Unity College on the playing fields as part of the £250 million Building Schools for the Future scheme.

It has ruled out using the existing site of the former Towneley High School as it says it is too small and too close to people's homes.

Leader of Burnley council Gordon Birtwistle said the fence would mean the loss of a vital open space for the people of the town.

He said: "This fence will stop people using the land for recreation as it has been for many, many years.

"It's almost as if the county council have turned round and punished Burnley for standing up to them and refusing to hand over the land they need for the school.

"Now they are just saying if we can't have it then you can't have it.' "The county council is arguing this is to stop dog fouling and joyriders but that has gone on for time immemorial. Why are they doing this now?

"This is depriving the people of Burnley from open space they have used for years."

Margaret Nelson, chairman of Fulledge Action Communtiy Team, which opposed the county council plans at the inquiry, said: "This seems like a case of sour grapes. It is as if after the public inquiry the county council have turned round and said whatever the result is going to be we will take the land anyway."

A spokesman from the county council's Building Schools for the Future team, said: "The fence is designed to prevent unauthorised access - particularly from cars and motor bikes - and to stop dog fouling on the sports pitches used by the school and local clubs. It will be constructed of timber posts with wire netting between.

"The fence is being put up now because there has been alot of attention paid to these playing fields over the summer and concerns expressed about dog fouling and cars driving on the land."