A mother has criticised the council for making her remove her garden gnomes because they broke green belt rules – before officials proposed to build hundreds of houses on the same land.

Susan Jamson’s house in Kestrel Drive, Hazlemere, backs onto Tralee Farm – one of dozens of sites in the district to be earmarked for development as part of the Wycombe District Council’s draft local plan.

Mrs Jamson and her husband Keith bought part of the land – which is in the green belt – from the owner to create a vegetable patch for their daughter Emma, who has Down’s Syndrome.

However, Mrs Jamson says Wycombe District Council strictly enforced green belt rules on them over the years, including making them put their shed on wheels and removing garden gnomes.

She said: “WDC said everything had to be moveable, there couldn’t be any permanent structure. The council kept coming round and checking that we could move all these things.

“We were told we needed to keep it the same way because it is green belt land. But suddenly all these rules about protecting the green belt have been completely wiped out and they want to build hundreds of houses in my back garden.”

In WDC’s draft local plan, they propose that Tralee Farm could be taken out of the green belt to make way for a development of between 240 and 320 homes.

Tralee Farm in Hazlemere.

Mrs Jamson said: “It is ridiculous, they complained about a few garden gnomes and then they go and do this.

“We kept to the rules religiously but now they don’t seem to care about those rules. Now they want to build houses on it, they say it is not green belt.

“It is wrong that the council can make rules and then break them.”

She also criticised Wycombe District Council for allegedly not considering infrastructure in Hazlemere before earmarking land for houses.

As well as plans for homes next to Hazlemere Golf Club, in Penn Road, a planning application to build anywhere between 380 and 540 homes on Terriers Farm, Kingshill Road, is expected before the end of the year.

Wycombe District Council said the green belt policies are "very specific" about what is and is not appropriate development, but it can be reviewed if there are "exceptional circumstances" to do so. 

A statement said: "The recent Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment identified a need for 50,000 homes across Buckinghamshire over the next 20 years. This inevitably lead to a review and assessment of the Green Belt across the county.

"The Green Belt review work that we've done has identified several sites across the district that may contribute to meeting our strategic need for 15,000 homes by 2033, if they were released.

"We are consulting on these potential sites as part of the draft new local plan consultation - the land off Amersham road, which includes Tralee Farm, is one of the sites identified.

"Any development that might take place would need to protect the existing orchard and woodland areas."

  • Go to www.wycombe.gov.uk/newlocalplan for more information – land off Amersham Road is referenced as HW8 in the draft plan. Comments can be made as part of the consultation by emailing newlocalplan@wycombe.gov.uk or at www.wycombe.gov.uk/haveyoursay until midnight on Monday, August 8.