The race is on to get Wycombe’s new Local Plan approved by March next year before new government guidelines force the district into building an extra 2,600 homes - but councillors said the proposals have left them "between a rock and a hard place".

The draft plan, which was agreed at cabinet last week, will see more than 10,000 homes built across the district in the next 15 years.

The formal consultation on the housing blueprint is set to begin on October 16 if the full council approves it early next month – but if the plan is not given the green light, the district may face having to build a total of 2,640 extra homes under a new government methodology for calculating housing need.

Urging councillors to approve the plan, Cllr David Johncock said: “We have to submit the plan by March 31 next year, because if we don’t, we have to review the whole plan using a new methodology that the government will introduce from that date.

“Aylesbury Vale will also see a huge increase, so we clearly can’t assume they will be able to take on our unmet need.”

He also warned that without a Local Plan, the district could be left “vulnerable” and inundated with “speculative” planning applications from developers.

He said: “A review of the plan would put us back several years and leave us without a recognised five-year land supply.

“Development will end up going where we don’t want it, simply because we don’t have a local plan in place to manage the situation. To avoid this, I'm urging you to agree the plan.

“I know many of you have concerns about the detailed proposals within the plan and I want to assure that these will be dealt with as part of the planning application process.”

Many councillors raised concerns about the plan at the meeting before it was approved. 

Cllr Julia Adey, who represents The Wooburns, said she had “strong reservations” about the plan and major concerns with how the road network in her ward would cope with extra housing.

Meanwhile, fellow Wooburns councillor Julia Langley added that in her role as cabinet member for housing, she recognises a need for more homes but worried about how highways issues would affect people in her ward.

She said: “Unless we do support this, it has been mentioned that developers will ride roughshod over us and they will have carte blanche as to where they want to develop. 

“But I do believe there comes a time when we have to say enough is enough and the frustration over the highways matters is my biggest concern.”

However, Cllr Hugh McCarthy, Hazlemere North, said: “We recognise the difficulty in finding suitable land and we regret very much the incursions onto Green Belt land. On balance, we feel we have achieved a level of compromise on a complex process.”