In June the Evening Post revealed that 62 pieces of ‘green space’ across the city are under threat in a proposed city council sell-off. As pressure mounts among campaigners, DAVID CLENSY meets two women who hope to not only save their local green, but to muster similar campaigners from across Bristol into one focused display of ‘people power’.

IT'S fair to say that retired neighbours Rosemarie Rendu-Jefferies and Pauline Potter aren't the kind of people you would normally expect to be leading a "revolution".

But Rosemarie and Pauline seem to have the bit between their teeth when I arrive at Rosemarie's Kingswood home. Expressions like "people power" and "making a stand" have already made it into the conversation before the kettle has finished boiling.

It's clear that Rosemarie and Pauline are also reaching a certain kind of boiling point – and they're not alone.

Their bugbear is a proposal by Bristol City Council to sell off a piece of grassy land opposite their Lodge Hill homes for redevelopment – a block of flats and a series of allotments.

And it's not just Rosemarie and Pauline who are irate about the idea of losing the grassy strip of recreation space known locally by the wonderful name of Diddly Dumps. They have more than 750 names on their petition to block the proposals, including local MP Kerry McCarthy.

All across the city, similar groups are bursting into action to try to save a strip of soil here and a grassy knoll there – seemingly unimportant pieces of land compared to the city's 180 larger parks, which the council hopes to redevelop using the estimated £90 million that could be raised from the sales.

But for local residents, the importance of these little patches of land should not be underestimated – often they are the only strips of parkland they actually use, and they play an exceptional role in community life.

Diddly Dumps is a case in point, as Rosemarie and Pauline explain, when they take me for a stroll around the triangular piece of land, which houses the occasional mature tree and which boasts spectacular views across the city to the Cotswolds and the Welsh hills beyond.

"People around here are passionate about saving this piece of land," Rosemarie says. "They feel that this is their land – it always has been – and that the council has absolutely no right to even consider selling it off so a developer can come along and build a block of flats here."

Pauline, who has lived opposite the land for more than 50 years, says it has always been a place where generations of Kingswood children have played.

"Originally, there were coal mining shafts there," she says. "And even back in the 1950s, there were slag heaps on the land – which is where it gets its name Diddly Dumps. But even then all the local kids grew up playing on here. This is an historic spot – going back through the centuries, this was once the entrance gateway to the Kingswood Forest, and a path would have led straight up from here to King John's hunting lodge."

Rosemarie adds: "Although it's only a small piece of land now, it is teeming with wildlife. People often see Pipistrelle bats hawking overhead. The local Scouts and Brownies also use the land to play on in the summer, and it's where all the locals gather to watch the fireworks across the city every Bonfire Night.

"People congregated here to watch Concorde return to Filton in 2003, and there were hundreds here to watch the solar eclipse in 1999. It's a sort of focal point for the community. It's where we gather when there is something happening. Every time it snows, for instance, this piece of land is transformed immediately into a toboggan slope.

"So it's vitally important for us that we save it – it's far more than a simple strip of land to us."

Rosemarie knows there are scores of similar patches of land around the city facing a dubious fate, and she is proposing joining forces with other concerned communities to form one larger "action group".

"We want all the groups from across the city to march on College Green to protest on September 15 – the day when the first full council meeting will be held to formally discuss these proposals.

"There are 62 pieces of land under threat out there. If we even get just a few dozen people down at College Green representing each place, we're talking about a tremendous number of protestors.

"With so many voices raised against these absurd proposals, I can't see how people power could fail to win," she adds.

Two years ago, council officers started looking at ways in which the city's parks and open spaces could be improved.

They identified 180 green spaces in the city where there is public access and consulted with local groups on the best way to improve them. They talked to engineers, landscape gardeners, youth workers, ecologists, environmentalists and many other local groups and experts before drawing up possible options.

These options are contained in 14 large booklets which cover the whole of the city. They can be viewed online by visiting the council's website.

Cabinet Councillor Gary Hopkins believes people should carefully consider how selling off the smaller strips of land might improve the city's parks.

"This set of proposals is the culmination of a long and complex piece of work and it is important that people in Bristol look closely at the details, think about them and let the council have their views," he said.

After October when the consultation period has finished, council officers will draw up a revised document called the Area Green Space Plan which councillors aim to adopt early next year. It will provide the framework for selling off surplus plots of land and starting to make improvements to parks and open spaces.

The consultation exercise will run until October and will include a series of drop-in sessions where people can study the options in their area. They are being invited to fill out a questionnaire which should be submitted at the latest by 5pm on Friday, October 29.

Fishponds resident Phil Hanby says a petition has also been launched to fight plans to sell off a section of the Ridgeway Road playing fields, at the corner of Abingdon Road and Honiton Road, which he understands could result in 79 homes being built on the site.

"It will have such an impact on the local community. It will be unbelievable if they sell this off," he says. "New homes could also create extra traffic along Abingdon Road, which is already a rat-run."

There is similar concern among residents in Horfield, over the future of a playing field at Wellington Hill.

More than 100 people crammed into Ardagh Bowling Club Pavilion off Kellaway Avenue for a meeting, organised by the Friends of Horfield Common, earlier this month.

Across the city in Knowle West, residents are mobilising against plans to build on a piece of recreation land behind Broad Walk. The land was given to the people of Knowle by the late Lady Smythe, who lived at the Ashton Court estate in the 1920s.

Jeana Mizen, 60, runs a youth group from her home in Salcombe Road which backs onto the recreation ground where youngsters often play football. "It's a beautiful field, a well-loved field – it's part of our lives," she says.

Dave Baker, 56, who has lived in Queenshill Road for 27 years, says: "I like to look out and see it as it is. We bought the house because it overlooked the park. If they build here it will devalue the existing houses by £15,000 each."

Other areas of the city that are protesting about their green spaces being earmarked for sale include: Stockwood, St Anne's, Bishopsworth, Shirehampton, Henbury and Lockleaze.

Council spokeswoman Helen Hewitt says no decisions have been made and people now have the chance to comment on the Area Green Space Plan.

"A thorough and comprehensive consultation process with local people over a number of years has enabled us to draw up the council's citywide parks and green space strategy and site allocations document," she explains.

"The strategy has identified the different types of green space that currently exists and where, for example, new play areas could be created and where parks could be enhanced with improved facilities and what the investment priorities will be for each area.

"The current consultation process, which started in June and runs throughout the summer until October, also looks at those areas of land, which have been deemed to be of low recreational and amenity value and which could be considered as possible future opportunities for land sale and development. No decisions have been made."

For more information on the Area Green Space Plan, visit the council's website at www.bristol.gov.uk/agsp or phone 0117 922 3719 and ask to speak to a member of the Area Green Space Plan team.