CAMPAIGNERS are calling for a change of rules so they can have their say on plans to build houses on much-loved playing fields.

A big turnout is expected at a full meeting of Basildon Council on Thursday, where opposition councillors hope to overturn Tory plans to sell-off three playing fields to fund the controversial £38million Sporting Village and swimming pool, in Gloucester Park.

Thousands of residents have signed petitions and joined campaigns to save green spaces off Pound Lane, Laindon, Kent View Road, Vange, and Felmores, Pitsea.

Residents are not normally allowed to speak at full council meetings, but campaigners want at least one member of the public to be able to talk for each playing field.

Terry Adams, 73, leader of the campaign to save the Pound Lane site, said: “This is a special case, so residents should be allowed to speak.

“It would be more democratic of councillors to listen to what we have to say.”

But Mo Larkin, Basildon Council’s chairman who will preside over the meeting, insisted this will not be possible.

She said: “I thought it would be a good idea for residents to speak at the meeting and made enquiries with our legal officers, but it is apparently not possible. We can’t change the rules unless we change the council’s constitution.”

The consitution can only be changed at the annual general meeting, the next of which is in May. The meeting at the Towngate Theatre, St Martins Square, Basildon, will start at 7.30pm.