CONTROVERSIAL plans to build new houses over playing fields were debated at a public meeting on Saturday.

Bournemouth Council plans to use Duck Lane’s fields for 49 new council houses to ease pressure on the waiting list.

However more than 1,000 residents have signed a petition against the scheme, saying the fields are still well-used despite being officially “decommissioned.”

Council officers and objectors put their case to the North Bournemouth Forum meeting held at Heathlands Primary School.

Simon Ludgate, head of housing technical services, said the waiting list for a three-bedroom council house is seven years.

He said the plan still left two acres of open space for dog walkers and other park users including two five-a-side pitches.

The council wants to build two, three and four-bedroom houses near the Duck Lane end, a community centre, and an open space that could include two five-a-side pitches at the Holloway Avenue end.

Ian Collier, speaking for objectors, said: “We understand the urgent need for housing, it’s the use of this particular site we object to.”

He said the fields were home to stag beetles, slow worms, bats and more.

And he said it was a “tranquil”, safe place for children to play compared to area like Turbary Common.

He suggested dev-eloping empty houses and industrial units and small parcels of land.

Annie Hunter, 54, a committee member of Duck Lane Preservation Group, said the council had not consulted people widely enough.

She vowed to fight the scheme until her last breath, to a good amount of applause from the 50-60 people present.

Residents commenting the scheme suggested leaving out the planned community centre because of Cornerstone Church’s own plan for an extension, and maybe having a skate park instead of the five-a-side pitches.

Cllr Ben Grower, a Labour member for Kinson South, said all his ward colleagues and at least two Kinson North councillors support the development.

He told the Echo: “If this development does not go ahead the council will sell the land to a private developer and we will see up to 90 units on this site.”