CONTROVERSIAL plans to take sections of land out of York's Green Belt have launched major opposition from a parish council.

Huntington Parish Council has said the proposals, made by City of York Council last week, represented a "savage erosion" of protected land.

The Green Belt boundaries have to be drawn up before City of York Council can start to draw up its local plan - the development plan for the future.

The boundaries propose which land has to be left alone, and which is open for development of housing and industry.

No final decision has yet been made on the boundaries, but the opinions of the public have been invited.

Eurig Thomas, Huntington Parish Council's chairman, said the plans would mean 41 hectares of existing green belt would be earmarked for development.

"Such implications are horrendous and Huntington Parish Council is totally opposed to such savage erosion of the local Green Belt," he said.

"In Huntington, we already suffer from acute traffic congestion and obviously further development on the proposed scale can only exacerbate this. I fear that local planners fail to appreciate the extent of our traffic problems despite repeated comments and warnings.

"The prospect of increased development creating a greater volume of traffic in a local infrastructure currently unable to cope is a frightening nightmare."

The council's proposals are intended to provide public open spaces in new developments, to reinforce and extend the city's pattern of "green wedges" and to ensure the city and its villages remain separate and distinct.

A map showing the effect was printed in the Evening Press last week.

Mr Thomas said: "A community needs to be vigilant to preserve its quality of life, but the outlined proposals will only do damage in terms of congestion, lack of social infrastructure and absence of facilities and amenities."

A City of York Council spokesman said: "At the moment these proposals are open to debate and we welcome Huntington Parish Council's input."

Updated: 08:36 Tuesday, March 05, 2002