DOG walkers are urging developers to allow them back on to open fields on York’s outskirts until work starts on building new homes.

A group of pet owners is lobbying the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust to come to a compromise over access to land at Osbaldwick, where pets have been walked for decades but where the trust is about to start constructing the 540-home model village Derwenthorpe.

Spokeswoman Tracey Ogiela said it could be several years before some parts of the site are developed, and owners should be allowed to take their animals on specially designated areas until the builders are due to move in.

But she said walkers wanted to make it clear they were not responsible for problems which have arisen since wire fences and “keep out” signs were erected around the site perimeter in the autumn.

She said someone had repeatedly cut the wire and knocked down the signs and she feared such actions may have actually deterred the Trust from coming to a compromise. She said that, if the walkers were allowed back on to part of the site they could actually be the eyes and ears for the trust in looking out for vandals and burglars.

Tracey, of Vicarage Gardens, who walks a Labrador called Max and a Collie Cross called Rufus, said several dog walkers had written or emailed the trust to request a designated dog walking area, and it had replied saying it would look into the health and safety implications, but they had heard nothing since.

“We are just asking them to give a little,” she said. The problems posed by the fences and the campaign to regain access to the site had had one beneficial side-effect – it had created a real sense of community among the dog walkers, some of whom had been widowed in recent years and found walking their dog was their way of getting out and socialising. They had even got together for a Christmas dinner last Saturday.

A trust spokeswoman said it was looking into whether it would be possible to allow temporary access to a designated area of the site for limited recreational use, including dog-walking. “As soon as we have guidance from our insurers, health and safety advisers and solicitors, we will be able to make a decision on this,” she said. “This would be for a finite period of time until the trust needs the space and this facility could also be withdrawn if it is used inappropriately.”