A BAND of furious Hampton residents have marched an application for village green status to York House as part of their tireless fight to get the "prison style" fence around Buckingham Fields taken down.

The community was shocked last June when a 12ft high steel fence was erected around the public playing fields in Buckingham Road.

The aim of the £35,000 fence, paid for by the Lottery Commission, was to keep out dog walkers and to protect the pitch exclusively for Hampton Community College.

Six months on, residents are campaigning to reclaim access to the council-owned field they used freely for 20 years, which they now pay £40 per match to use.

Leader of the campaign, John Frixou, of Buckingham Road, Hampton, said: "This is green belt open space land, you cannot build a big structure like that fence on it.

"We are going to ask the Lottery Commission to come and have a look at where its money has gone. There is not one single person that supports that fence."

Mr Frixou presented the council's legal department with a petition and 60 pages worth of questionnaires filled in by residents living in 17 surrounding roads.

He said they are campaigning to achieve three things: to protect the park from development, as they suspect the council wishes to sell off the rest of the park and that is why it isolated the playing fields; to be allowed to use the pitch for free and to have the fence taken down.

A spokesman from Richmond council said sport organisations, schools and the overview and scrutiny committee were consulted before the fence was erected.

He said the council does not have plans to sell off the rest of the field and the application for village green status will be considered by the council's regulatory committee.