PROTESTORS called for ‘joined up thinking, not joined up communities’ on a march to protect the greenbelt.

About 100 people took part in the protest to argue against development of the green buffer zone between Menston and Guiseley.

They were joined by campaigners from Ilkley.

Organiser Liz Kirkpatrick said the turnout on Sunday had been good despite the poor weather conditions.

She said: “Some had made their own banners and placards and all were very much against development on green belt land in Guiseley and Menston.

“Our theme was, joined up thinking, not joined up communities.”

She stressed: “If the Ings are built on then the communities of Guiseley and Menston will have merged and the green belt buffer between will be destroyed.

“This is contrary to government guidelines with regard to green belt.”

She added: “We want to make Leeds City Council think again about allowing developers to build on green belt before all the brown field sites are used up. The builders already own acres of brown field sites but have banked them and used them as collateral to raise money to buy more, easily developed, greenfield sites.”

She said it was not just the loss of the green belt itself which was concerning residents but it was also problems of traffic, congested roads. The protest gained the support of passing motorists. “The honk if you love green belt placard was inspirational as it got very noisy along the A65 as cars sounded their horns as they went past our procession,” Liz said.

“The youngest participant was one and the oldest 92 with every age in between. Everyone, young and old will be affected by the overdevelopment in Aireborough.”

Members of campaign group WARD were among those at the Menston and Guiseley march. They later joined a protest at the Cow and Calf Rocks in Ilkley.

Bradford councillor, Anne Hawkesworth (Ind, Ilkley) was among the Ilkley contingent at the protest. “It was fantastically well supported,” she said.

Ilkley protestors wanted to draw attention to the pressure being put on the green belt around Menston, Burley, Ben Rhydding and Ilkley. After joining others at White Cross in Guiseley, they travelled on to Ben Rhydding. However, heavy rain on their arrival in Ben Rhydding put an end to the protest.

Cllr Hawkesworth said: “You could say that like the cricket, rain stopped play.”