Protesters fighting plans to expand a school onto a former cricket pitch have launched a petition to save Hounslow's 'threatened' sporting facilities.

Hounslow Council is proposing to extend Wellington Primary School, in Sutton Lane, across the road onto Church Meadows, providing an extra 120 places a year.

But members of Indian Gymkhana Club believe the land, which was formerly home to Hounslow Cricket and Sports Club, should be preserved for cricket.

They say they have offered to take over the grounds, build new facilities on the site of the burned-down pavilion and allow local schools to use the cricket pitch during the week, but this offer has been rejected by the council.

More than 120 people have now signed an e-petition calling on the Government to give greater support to 'threatened sporting facilities', including the site in question.

Indian Gymkhana is based in Thornbury Avenue, Osterley, but often has to rent pitches outside the borough and says demand is increasing, especially with the club hoping to play in the Middlesex Premier League next year - the highest amateur league in the county.

"We've got to the stage where we're going to have to start turning children away because we don't have the capacity," said the club's cricket secretary Sarbjit Dhillon.

"Eight or nine years ago there were cricket grounds everywhere in Hounslow and now we've got almost none. Playing outside the borough may be the only solution, which is sad."

The proposed school building, it is understood, would occupy the site of the old cricket pavilion, three disused tennis courts and a former bowling green.

Hounslow Indoor Bowls Club would not be affected and it is believed the cricket pitch itself would not be built upon.

A public consultation by the council on plans to provide more places at primary schools, including Wellington, closed at the beginning of June. A feasibility report on the expansion plans is expected to go before cabinet members next month.

The council has estimated it needs an extra 6,243 primary school places across all years to meet demand by 2017/18.