An Otley campaign group is urging more people to sign a petition against "unsustainable" new housing - while they still can.

Some 1,750 residents have already signed a statement drawn up by ODD which rejects the current scale of new development being considered by Leeds City Council as unsustainable.

The sites list for the new Local Development Framework, which is proposing some 1,177 new properties for Otley over the next 15 years, is set to be finalised in two weeks' time.

A spokesman for ODD said: "It is important that as many residents as possible sign the petition to maximise the political pressure on the planners.

"The petition has to be submitted soon as they are currently reviewing which sites to develop.

"The petition is currently available for signature online and at Bondgate Bakery and the Otley Core Resource Centre, on Orchard Gate.

"Currently there is also a mass e-mail lobby of the key decision makers taking place - details of how to sign the petition and participate in the e-mail lobby are on our campaign website, at www.theoddcampaign.webs.com .

"The ODD campaign is not against development, however in their current form the Local Development Framework plans for the town are neither appropriate nor sustainable."

Launched in January, the campaign's calls for an impact assessment of the combined effect of all the planned developments - on services like local schools, roads, and health services - to be commissioned has been adopted by Otley Town Council.

The group is pressing the city council to support such a study, and also insisting that previously developed, brownfield sites should be developed before any of Otley's greenfield locations are used.

The petition states that: "We object most strongly to the substantial increase in houses in Otley (some 20 per cent) implicit in the new Leeds Local Development Framework, particularly as this planned increase arises from individual housing sites without any consideration of the overall effect on the community."