Ceredigion politicians have backed a campaign to save a Waunfawr field from development by securing Village Green status.

Ceredigion County Council is currently considering a Village Green Status application for the Erw Goch Field located behind Hafan y Waun care home in Aberystwyth.

The plan from the council, in conjunction with Wales and West Housing, to build 77 homes on the field received dozens of objections when a planning application was submitted earlier this year.

Now villagers of Waunfawr and Llanbadarn are hoping to achieve Village Green Status to “protect the open space for future generations”.

A six-week consultation period has been launched and the move has been backed by Ceredigion MP Ben Lake and Ceredigion MS Elin Jones.

The campaign to maintain the field as a green space is being led by local residents who use the field regularly for a variety of activities.

The land, which backs on to Hafan y Waun, has been a “recreational space for the community to enjoy football, walking, wildlife and the benefits of fresh air for over 30 years and was especially vital during the pandemic”, the Friends of Erw Goch group said.

“Securing this green piece of land will have significant benefits not only to the local and wider communities of Waunfawr, Llanbadarn Fawr and Aberystwyth, but will also greatly benefit the environment by maintaining a habitat where a large variety of plants, flowers, animals, birds and pollinators already exist,” the group added.

Elin Jones and Ben Lake both visited the Erw Goch field this month and met with local residents to discuss the application. Both politicians expressed their support for the Village Green Status.

In a letter of support to Ceredigion council, Mr Lake said: “I was struck by the testimony of residents, who not only explained how they made full use of the field for the purposes of leisure and outdoor exercise, but who also shared wonderful accounts of the many community events that has taken place on the field for decades.”

A spokesperson for the residents’ group, Sian Richards, said: “This green space has been used for generations by children, parents and grandparents. It is integral to supporting community spirit and helps to maintain health and wellbeing.

“It has been a lifeline during Covid-19 and we all have a duty to fight as hard as we can to keep as many safe, green spaces available for public use as possible.”

Wales and West Housing said the development would facilitate ”a range of affordable and open market housing tenures” as well as provide a new learning disability facility which would offer “long-term benefits to repatriate a number of out-of-county placements, whilst at the same time delivering significant overall cost savings” to the council.

The Friends of Erw Goch are encouraging people who have, and still, use this land for recreational purposes to support the Village Green Status application “so that the field can be maintained and enjoyed by future generations”.

The consultation period for the application is open until 11 August.