Angry campaigners who gathered thousands of signatures against development on Green Belt land in Bourne End say the council has “totally disregarded” their concerns.

More than 2,400 people signed a petition against plans to develop on Hollands Farm, as mentioned in the Draft Local Plan, and campaigner, Penny Drayton from Keep Bourne End Green, presented it to Wycombe District Council’s Cabinet last night.

Despite acknowledging “serious issues” with developing on Hollands Farm – including a risk of flooding as well as impact on the village’s infrastructure – Cllr David Johncock, WDC planning chief, insisted they have reached the “right conclusion.”

He said: “I know people in Bourne End would have preferred it if we had taken Hollands Farm out of the final new plan, but frankly, had we responded that way to all the objections received to our draft plan, there would be hardly any new homes built at all in our district which is clearly unacceptable.

“We need to build more homes and we need to find the best places to do that whilst protecting the majority of our beautiful countryside. In this case, we believe that Hollands Farm is a suitable location albeit there are serious issues to address.

“We have been at pains to explain our rationale and we have to accept that we will not always persuade everybody that we are making the right judgement. However, we think we have reached the right conclusion although a formal decision has yet to be made by this council.”

Ms Drayton said the comments were “sad proof that the opinions of two or three thousand people who have spoken out against this are totally worthless and disregarded.”

She said: “They had a prepared response which isn’t very good when we have given them valid responses. I feel like they haven’t listened to anything we have expressed to them.

“It is all very well trying to stay professional and not get too emotional about it but you can’t help it, I am angry, but it’s not even just a personal anger. There were 3,000 objections to this and they are all being ignored. They have disregarded everyone’s opinion.”

Cllr Johncock apologised to Ms Drayton that a pre-prepared response was made public before she had had a chance to present her petition.

He said: “We needed to release updated housing information affecting Bourne End amongst others before Cabinet had had the chance to publically respond to your petition. This was an unfortunate timing problem because we had to file a report to AVDC scrutiny committee.

“We haven’t disregarded the issues raised by your petition. Indeed, we have taken the points very much to heart, particularly those related to infrastructure, most notably the roads.”

Keep Bourne End Green is now focusing on their fundraising campaign to pay for expert legal and planning advice and have managed to raise more than £6,000 so far.

Visit mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/keepbourneendgreen to donate.