GREEN belt land is in more danger than ever before, according to countryside campaigners.

A report published today by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) claimed a pattern had emerged of sustained attacks on green belts across the country.

The report blamed Government policy, and local authorities for "meekly following their lead", in eroding green belts in a way unseen since they were introduced 50 years ago.

It pointed out that in York, 117 hectares of green belt land at Heslington East would be lost if the city's university gets approval for plans to extend its campus.

The controversial 65-hectare campus extension received outline planning approval in March, after councillors agreed the social and economic benefits of the expansion outweighed environmental concerns.

Last week, the Evening Press reported how one of the university's own academics, biology lecturer Dr Richard Firn, had slammed the plans as "selfish and unimaginative".

Dr Firn is on the university's environmental performance working group, which looks at how well the university is performing on "green issues".

He said: "I think the plans have been particularly badly thought through from an environmental point of view, because essentially what they would be building on what is farmland or green belt, which should only ever be touched when all other avenues have been exhausted, and I don't believe that has been done at the university yet."

Dr Guy Woolley, district chairman for the CPRE in York and Selby, said: "We are not against the university developing, but with only 20 per cent of the existing campus built on and many of the buildings single-storey or past their sell-by date, it would be better to use what is already there."

The application has been referred to the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber, which has yet to decide whether to intervene.

But some green belt land around York has received protection.

In May last year, controversial proposals to build homes on a "greenfield" site at New Lane in Huntington, set out in the York Local Plan, were shelved after provoking nearly 1,700 objections.

Huntington Parish Council chairman Peter Vaughan said residents were delighted that the threat of more housing in the village looked set to be lifted.

Coun Vaughan said at the time: "We are delighted that all the pressure that was brought about by the people of Huntington, the parish council and city councillors produced this recommendation.

"We want to make sure that the land is kept in the green belt for a very long time. We're delighted the threat has been lifted."

Vale of York Tory MP Anne McIntosh has campaigned to conserve green belt land in her constituency.

She said: "I believe as a general rule strict planning parameters should be set down from the outset of the development, so the local community that will be affected by it gets a clear impression of what's going on."

Updated: 10:30 Wednesday, May 25, 2005