The bid to make some playing fields a village green in order to derail plans for a private development has ended in failure.

Harrow Council have been looking to sell Whitchurch Playing Fields in Wemborough Road, Stanmore, and selected Whitchurch Consortium in 2011 to redevelop the dilapidated pavilion and playing fields into a state-of-the-art sports complex.

Campaigner Melanie Lewis, who lives by the fields, lodged an application to make the land a village green earlier this year, but the council’s cross-party licensing panel rejected the proposal unanimously on Tuesday.

Addressing the panel, Mrs Lewis said: “I am imploring you to look deeply into your hearts and remember why you became councillors: to support residents and care for our borough.

“Once the council loses it to a private developer, that’s it. It is gone for good and no one will have a say in what happens to it.”

Members of the Whitchurch Consortium recently quizzed councillors at a cabinet meeting as to why campaigners had been allowed to stall the development, and later told the Observer local sports groups are in desperate need of the facilities.

When the council began to identify potential bidders in 2008, they did not have an indication of Whitchurch First School and Nursery’s use of the land, which was actually classified by the Department for Education (DfE) as school playing fields.

The DfE told the Observer in September the council had not received permission from Conservative Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove to sell the land and said it would only agree to the sale of school playing fields ‘if the sports and curriculum needs of schools and their neighbouring schools can continue to be met’.

This revelation led Whitchurch First School and Nursery, which uses the fields on an ad hoc basis, to withdraw their support of the private development of the land.

Deputy leader of Harrow Council, Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane (Conservative) said after the meeting: “Our administration has endeavoured to ensure that the council correctly follows procedures when it comes to deciding the future of Whitchurch Playing Fields. Last night’s licensing panel was a significant stage in that process, and the council will now look at the available options and way forward for this piece of land.”

The council has also confirmed it is in talks with the Education Funding Agency about future of the site.