CAMPAIGNERS say time is running out to save a threatened community sports field in Blackheath.

Residents are worried that funding to keep Hervey Road’s green space, which was used as a sports field from 1890 to 2002, will drain away after Greenwich Council’s six-year delay over the site's use.

The council had originally held back plans for sporting activities because of proposals to rebuild special needs school Willow Dene on the site.

But following the collapse of these plans, it has still stalled a go ahead for the sports field, even with the public's interest high because of the London 2012 Olympics .

Now action group The Friends of Hervey Road Sports Field fear the cash they secured last autumn from the London Marathon Charitable Trust to buy the field from the council and restore it will be withdrawn.

Chairwoman Susan Proudfoot said: "It is just frustrating really and I think people feel it is a tremendous underuse of a public asset - It looks like another long haul.

"The fact that the council took six years to make a decision for Willow Dene not to go there and now to start again - it is quite unacceptable.

"Obviously the Marathon Trust has other people after the money - this was promised to us, but if no decision is made by Christmas I think the money will go back into the trust’s pot so this is the worry really.

"Clearly with being an Olympic host borough it seems an ideal time to make this a legacy sports field, particularly with so many primary schools able to walk to it."

A Greenwich Council spokesman said: "The Royal Borough of Greenwich is actively considering the future of the land at Hervey Road but has yet to take a formal decision, which it expects to make after the Olympics."

A petition to save the sports field is currently 1,000 signatures strong. To add your name, visit saveherveyroadsportsfield.co.uk