After a successful campaign getting parkland protected, residents in a Norfolk town are asking for more space to be given the same safeguards from development.

Seven acres (2.8 hectares) of land known as Harding’s Pits, beside the River Great Ouse in King’s Lynn, will be preserved after it was given “village green status” by the county council.

The Harding’s Pits Community Association had campaigned for the past 30 years to keep the area as leisure space.

Next, the group wants the protection to be extended to the east side, which has been earmarked for up to 50 houses in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council’s local plan, external. The authority has been approached for comment.

Alexandra Kemp, an independent councillor, said she was asking her authority to amend its local plan.

She said: “I want to protect the east side of Hardings Way as a village green. To take out the 50 houses earmarked for Harding’s Pits east from the borough’s local plan, and provide community sports facilities, more trees and places for wildlife instead.

“Any development along Hardings Way risks more general traffic which would be devastating to the peace, quiet, safety, and amenity and wildlife.”

The local council has been given a target to build more than 10,000 new homes by 2040 by the government.

Harding’s Pits was turned into a public space in the early 1960s, but was originally a 19th Century clay pit which was then used as landfill.

The site is currently used for dog walking and as pedestrian access to King’s Lynn town centre.

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