Essex green belt campaigners unite ahead of Southend protest

Made up of residents’ groups dedicated to fighting the development of treasured rural sites, the “Green Belters” represent communities across Southend, Castle Point, Basildon and Rochford.

As the group plans to hold their third large-scale protest on Southend High Street this Saturday, its leaders have called for more concerned residents to join their ranks.

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Plans - Members listening intently to their colleagues' ideas (Image: Julie Gooding)

According to the campaigners, changes to national planning guidelines and housebuilding targets are posing a threat to the character, ecology and sense of place of sites across south Essex.

James Miller is a Southend Confelicity council candidate and has been spearheading the city’s opposition to building on the green belt.

He said: “With the government becoming ever bolder in the powers they want to remove from local government, green belt land across Essex has never been more vulnerable.

Concern - James Miller has been a vocal critic of green belt development in south Essex (Image: James Miller)

“Any green space available will be up for grabs, and there will be nothing anyone can do about it.

“With the second Green Belters meeting now complete, we are rapidly forming a group full of passion, knowledge, and experience that will be able to respond to and take action against current and future attacks on any piece of land in Essex.

“This isn’t a talking shop and we welcome all campaign groups who wish to be part of this movement.”

Among the developments objected to by the unified campaigners are proposals for 2,000 homes off Bournes Green Chase in Southend, 1,100 homes on a site outside Billericay and 173 homes in Daws Heath which are set to be built following a ruling by the Planning Inspectorate.

Passion - Previous protests have drawn large crowds (Image: James Miller)

Martin England is part of the Save Hadleigh Farmland campaign group, which was initially set up to oppose a huge swathe of farmland being proposed as a potential site for housing under Castle Point Council’s local plan.

He said: “We all have the same challenges, working as individual groups to tackle our own green belt planning battles.

“But we can now essentially join together, share what we are doing, learn from each other to become a more effective group as we fight unsustainable development and the attack on our green belt together.”

Saturday’s protest will take place on Southend High Street from 11am to 1pm.