A PHOTOGRAPHER hopes this stunning picture will persuade Bristol City Council to scrap its plans to build homes on the edge of St Anne's Park.

David White, 40, produced the image to illustrate how popular the park is with residents and believes it shows why the open space should be spared development.

He created the picture using a timelapse technique – merging together hundreds of photographs of the park discreetly taken at the rate of one every ten seconds during a one-hour period on a Saturday afternoon.

It shows a strip of the park under threat from development being used by hundreds of dog walkers, cyclists and children playing games.

Mr White, whose home in Newbridge Road overlooks the park, believes the photograph is at odds with the city council's assessment of the open space as "low value" land.

He said: "It's only a tiny park and the council is proposing to sell off a significant proportion of it.

"I took the photos to prove it wasn't underused. There's no transparency on how the council reached its conclusion that it is low-value land. The park is not just used by residents – it's used by everybody and I wanted to prove that visually."

The council has proposed building 19 homes on the land to improve surveillance over the remainder of the park.

But Mr White believes the park does not need extra surveillance because it is already overlooked by homes there is little anti-social behaviour on the open space.

The married professional photographer says he believes the open space was unfairly assessed as "low value" when it was visited on a wet Bank Holiday morning.

Of the plans, he said: "It would completely obliterate the residents' view of the park and the view is why people bought these houses."

In June, Mr White's eight-year-old son Louie and his friend Edwyn Lewis chained themselves to a tree in the park in protest at the plans.

The proposal is part of the city council's plans to sell off "low value" land as part of a project to improve nearly 200 parks and open spaces across the city over the next 20 years.

Council officials are suggesting that a strip of land behind the houses in Newbridge Road is sold off for housing to raise the funds for the revamp of the park and improvements to nearby St Anne's Wood.

The proposals were published as part of the council's Area Green Space Plan in June.

The authority says no decisions have been made and people are being asked for their views until October 29.

Council spokeswoman Helen Hewitt told the Evening Post previously: "We know people are very passionate about their parks and open spaces and many want to see improvements in the parks near where they live. To achieve these improvements we need to have robust strategic plans in place, which will inform future council decision-making."

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