Campaigners are trying to preserve the playing fields of a historic school so it can remain open to the public.

Brighton and Hove City Council is being urged to include the playing fields of the former St Aubyns’ School in Rottingdean in the local conservation area to protect the village from overdevelopment.

Residents fear that the Cothill Educational Trust, who closed the school after 118 years this summer, will sell the land to developers for lucrative housing.

The trust confirmed to The Argus yesterday they have had a number of interested parties but that it was too early to say what shape any future use of the site would take.

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Brighton Kemptown MP Simon Kirby has written to Brighton and Hove City Council asking the authority to protect the land and will raise the issue with chief executive Penny Thompson in a meeting today.

Mr Kirby said: “The site has been a green space probably for hundreds of years and I don’t think people are against development but are concerned that the character of the village might change if the green spaces disappear.

“Clearly there will be a redevelopment but it is important that it is appropriate and of a scale and type fitting a historic village.”

Rottingdean councillor Mary Mears said: “I have checked with planning guidance and because it has been in educational use there are quite a number of planning restrictions and covenants on that site.

“It would not be straightforward for developers to build the sort of large housing development that Rottingdean residents really wouldn’t want.”

Fellow local councillor Lynda Hyde said: “The fact that the land could be used for development is the big fear.

“There has always been an unspoken agreement that if the gates were open, people could go on to the fields and they have been used on the odd occasion for public events.

“As a ward councillor I have been disappointed with the lack of information being given out by the trust.”

Tim Verdon, bursar of the Cothill Educational Trust, said: “It’s early days and we are looking at all possibilities.

“We have had a number of people approach us for a number of uses and we are looking at their viability.

“We wanted to focus on making the last terma success and ensure that the children had a good time and it ended as good as it could and so we have only just started to consider what to do with the site.”

Penny Thompson, chief executive of Brighton and Hove City Council, said: “We have received an email from Simon Kirby about the playing fields and will be looking into the issues raised.”