The bid to bring a heavily-opposed caravan site to a "cherished" open space in Harrow is set to be debated by councillors on Wednesday.

Thousands of neighbours of the Broadfields Country Club in Headstone Lane, North Harrow, called on Harrow Council to block the building of a caravan site when handing in a record-breaking petition which notched up 4,228 signatures.

Georgia Weston, of Headstone Lane, has organised the Save Broadfields campaign and ahead of the meeting said: "This is a valued community space which is cherished by the local residents."

The application to bring a caravan site to the open space had been recommended for refusal by council officers, as was the case when the applicant – Harrow Community Sports – submitted an application for a similar development but withdrew it in May last year, the day before Harrow Council’s planning committee were set to discuss it.

Ms Weston added: "We are here once again, with even more support than last time, but we don't want to keep going around in circles.

"Ideally, we want to sit down with Harrow Community Sports and look to the future of the site and how they can both effectively run a business, but also remember that they have the word 'community' in their name.

"That being said, the amount of support we have had to say 'no' to this caravan site and what it would do to our area speaks for itself."

The campaigner, who is running as an Independent candidate in the upcoming council elections for Headstone North, has also had the backing of both Labour's MP for Harrow West Gareth Thomas, and Tory MP for Harrow East Bob Blackman in opposing the development.

The chairman of the applicant group, Richard Gabriel, has raised doubt on the legitimacy of the petition.

The Save Broadfields campaign have argued that the conversion of the 2.2 hectares of the Green Belt land which would include the creation of roads and the construction of a waste disposal unit would take the land out of the hands of the community, who believe the land should be used for sport and community events.

Mr Gabriel, the chairman of Harrow Community Sports, said: "During our last application, we received advice over some things that we could better address in our application so that is when we decided to not go ahead with the committee hearing.

"Even though this has been recommended for refusal again, we know that it can be overturned and will pursue it."

To read about the result of the planning meeting, visit www.getwestlondon.co.uk on Thursday.