BRISTOL City Council cabinet approved an idea to sell of part of Furber Road open space, Gladstone Street playground and Terrell Gardens after 205 pages of residents' emails, letters and submissions.

Of the residents who returned questionnaires on the sites during the consultation process, 75 per cent did not favour the development of Furber Road.

The one site that was deferred was Plummers Hill, following concerns raised about access to the site.

It was revealed at a council scrutiny meeting that the only way a developer could gain access to the site was if the authority paid another landowner for "ransom strips" next to the ground.

It was argued that this would reduce the amount of money the council could raise from the ground, defeating the object of putting it forward for sale in the first place.

Further work will be carried out on the deferred sites and then officers and executive member for the scheme, Gary Hopkins, will decide how to move forward.

The council has always argued that selling off green spaces is necessary to help invest of scores of other parks across Bristol, after a lack of investment for decades.

During the consultation period residents were asked to fill in questionnaires saying which of their local parks were most important to invest in and which investments in each park they wanted most.

Of the 135 questionnaires returned, the majority felt St George's Park was the most important area to invest in.

As with other parks included in the green spaces plan, residents favoured what would appear to be the cheaper options.

Enhancing and managing the natural green space and footpath to the south of the park as a meadow habitat was considered the most important improvement.

This was followed by a ban on fishing on the boating lake – two thirds of people who responded prioritised that.

That response follows an ongoing row between residents and fishermen that could be re-ignited if a ban is approved. Thinning the tress on the lake island was not considered important by the majority, nor was restoring a broken footpath link from Lyndale Road to Church Road.

All of the public responses had names removed when the council published them last month.

One resident said: "St George's Park is an excellent local facility and part of the reason we moved to the area three years ago.

"There is not too much wrong with St George's park – it has great charm – so don't tinker with it too much."

Another said: "I am very strongly in favour of banning fishing on the boating lake.

"Enjoyment of the park is often ruined by seeing so many of the birds on the lake with terrible injuries from fishing lines and hooks."

But not everyone agreed, with another resident stating: "There should not be a ban on fishing but it should be controlled and restricted on certain areas or maybe times. The park also needs a café."

Primrose Lane open space came bottom of the list of areas that need improving.

Money raised from sales will be added to funding from developers, grants and the parks department budget and then divided between areas in the city.

Residents will be able to have their say on where the money should go at Neighbourhood Partnerships meetings, and over the next six months a "shopping list" of improvements will be drawn up for each area.

Council spokesman James Easey said: "Following cabinet's decision, those green spaces which will be made available for disposal will now go into the site allocations plan, and the usual planning process – this will determine when and if developments occur over the next 20 years.

"But as officers made clear these areas will of course continue to be maintained up until that point."