Dozens of neighbours have banded together to fight county council plans to lift an old Quaker covenant protecting land near their homes.

The covenant, dating back to New Year's Eve 1943, severely restricts the number of houses which can be built on the site of the former Roundhills special school at Sedbergh Drive, Kendal.

Cumbria County Council wants to get the covenant lifted and sell the plot of land to a developer for more than 30 houses and that has angered many nearby residents.

Almost 100 neighbours packed the hall of Castle Park Primary School this week to unite against the lifting of the covenant, which restricts the number of houses to be built on the site to eight.

Expressing their anger with the county council, they unanimously agreed to oppose any attempts to get the covenant lifted through Kendal County Court and the Lands Tribunal.

Residents formed a special sub-committee of Roundhills Residents Association to coordinate their fight, and many pledged £50 towards the anticipated cost of seeking legal advice from a barrister.

Association chairman Roger Thompson told the meeting "a great number of properties would be adversely affected" if the covenant was lifted, particularly by the extra traffic generated.

One resident said: "I can't think of any benefit from the covenant being lifted at all more traffic, more noise, more saturation of development, more people."

Ward county councillor Tom Clare said the county council was legally required to get the best possible price for the land, by the district auditor. He suggested asking South Lakeland District Council to vary the Local Plan. That planning blueprint earmarks the plot for 33 houses, although government guidance has now pushed that figure up to around 40.

Coun Clare, together with district councillor Sonia Lawson and two town councillors, is to ask the district council to re-allocate the site for eight houses only.

Many of the residents at the meeting had received letters from CCC with a form attached, inviting them to agree that their property gained no benefit from the covenant, and that they did not wish to take part in court proceedings.

Residents agreed unanimously that people should return their forms stating clearly that they objected to attempts to lift the covenant, and they disagreed their property gained no benefit from it.

CCC land and property manager Steve Adcock said he understood that letters had been sent to people living in the wider area that would have originally been covered by the covenant. He said it was unlikely the covenant would have any impact on them because of house-building in the intervening years. "The impact of a development two or three streets away isn't going to affect their property value, whether seven houses or 27 or 37," he said.

He said the county council was trying to save the cost of sending out all the court papers to everybody, so had sent explanatory letters instead. He said residents would have had to pay for expert legal opinion to get the court papers explained to them.

The letters were not sent to those people living immediately adjacent to the site, as the council knows they would have a claim for compensation.

Mr Adcock said CCC wished to sell the plot because it had been "surplus and vacant for ten years or more" since the old Roundhills school was closed and demolished.

He said the council was sitting on a "very valuable" asset which should be realised, and estimated the value at "high hundreds of thousands" of pounds.

Mr Adcock said CCC saw no reason why the covenant should not be lifted in court.