Council officials have issued an order to forcibly buy areas of land so that children at a Bath primary school can have a playing field.

Oldfield Park Junior School has been fighting for years for green space and at the moment pupils have to travel to a public park half a mile away for games lessons.

Now Bath and North East Somerset Council has issued compulsory purchase orders on seven plots of land to the back of the Lymore Terrace site.

The authority says every effort had been made to privately purchase the sites, which are designated for educational use, but negotiations have proved unsuccessful.

The council's cabinet member for children's services Councillor Chris Watt said he was pleased that he had started the ball rolling and that the application process had now been approved by the Department for Education.

He said: "This has enabled the council to start the next stage of the legal process needed to secure the land to provide a playing field for the school."

But several of the landowners are unhappy with the way they have been treated by the council.

Raymond Mancini, of Ivy Avenue, used to run his site as an allotment with his wife Una, but more than two and a half years ago they were told by B&NES Council that they would forcibly buy the land from them within six months.

They decided to stop working on the site and have now had to watch it become overgrown and derelict.

The 79-year-old said: "It is sort of thieving, I think, and it has gone on and on. We are annoyed with the council's attitude. We used to have a little nursery up there and we could feed ourselves on it.

"But it has become overgrown now because they have taken so long to sort it out."

Lesley Hawkins, 88, and his sister Joan Hiscocks, 84, own another allotment there and although they are former pupils of the school, do not think there is any need for the playing fields.

Mr Hawkins, who lives in Manor Park, said: "It is a very old-fashioned school and I am sure it won't be long before they pull it down. In the long term I don't think it is right to sell these plots for the playing fields."

Mrs Hiscocks, who lives in Milton Avenue, added: "We have been hanging around for two and a half years and nothing has been done."

All the landowners now have six weeks to formally appeal against the orders.