Another battle in the long-running war of Bristol's Packers Field is to take place.

Planning officers are recommending the go-ahead for a 400-metre running track at the City Academy's playing field in Whitehall.

Opponents say creating a fenced-in athletics facility goes against the community use agreement signed earlier this year which allowed free, informal access to the site.

The city council's development control (central) committee will be told 52 people have objected to the athletics track.

Many of them say the City Academy has gone back on its promises to the community over the use of the field in Johnsons Road.

One objector, Justin Dillon, from Whitehall, said in a letter to the Bristol Evening Post last month fencing off Packers Field would "effectively render it inaccessible and useless to the hundreds of people in the Easton and Whitehall area who regularly use it".

He added: "It is debatable whether another athletics facility is demanded in Bristol, and even if this is the case, surely inner city green space should not be destroyed for it."

But the planning officers' report says the underlying issue about the loss of the land for informal recreation was resolved four years ago at an earlier stage of the development.

Officers are urging councillors to agree to the six-lane running track, with an eight-lane sprint straight; field event facilities and a storage building.

Five residents have written in support of the scheme, saying it will help encourage children to get involved in sport in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics and will help enforce a "no dogs" policy across the site. Sport England is backing the development.

The seven-acre field was used for recreation by workers at the Packers chocolate factory in Greenbank during the early 20th century, until it was sold to the council during the Depression. It was used by local schools, teams and families for 70 years.

When St George Community School became the City Academy five years ago, the city council leased Packers Field to the academy for a peppercorn rent with the intention of turning it into a sports hub and an eventual replacement for the athletics track at Whitchurch, Bristol.