A hearse carrying a green coffin led a protest by campaigners who are fighting to save protected land around Bristol from mass house building.

Demonstrators from areas around the city dressed in black as they followed the coffin, which symbolised the death of the green belt.

They are angry that huge areas of countryside are under threat through Government moves to find space for 117,350 houses in the West by the year 2026.

That figure includes 38,500 homes for Bristol, 32,800 for South Gloucestershire, 26,750 for North Somerset and 19,300 for Bath and North East Somerset.

Many of those houses would have to be built on what is currently protected land, aimed at stopping the Bristol sprawl.

In a recent Parliamentary debate, housing minister Iain Wright said rules directing that previously developed land should be chosen for development before protected green space were rigid and old fashioned.

But people opposed to the loss of greenfield sites have rallied to save them and met in Bristol yesterday, (Friday), to march on the Government Office of the South West (GOSW).

They also handed in petitions to Tom King, assistant director for housing and planning at the regional centre, along with response forms setting out arguments against such large scale house building.

Among the marchers were people from areas such as Dundry, Whitchurch, Bedminster Down, Siston, Shortwood and Oldland.

They carried fruits from agricultural land and hedgerows that are in danger of being lost.

Jacquie Stephens, of the Save Warmley and Siston Green Spaces group, said: "We've presented these forms and petitions on the day of the deadline for comments into the proposals. But it doesn't mean our campaigns will now fade away. We shall carry on fighting."

At the end of the march, Ron Morton, of the Shortwood Green Belt Campaign, addressed the protesters at the entrance to the GOSW building before the documents were finally handed in.

He said the campaigners were friends of the green belt, which had been created to stop Bristol spreading further into the countryside.

They had met to mourn its loss and he accused those in the GOSW of not appreciating it at all. He said they wanted to destroy it by building thousands of "shoddy little homes".

He said: "We are in this for the long haul. We are working together and will make them listen."