More than 250 people turned out to a public meeting at the weekend about new homes on green belt land in Chesham, which was chaired by Chesham & Amersham MP Cheryl Gillan.

Chesham Town Hall was packed on Saturday, with people being turned away, as Mrs Gillan allegedly declared her opposition to the proposals, which could see more than 50 hectares of land removed from Green Belt from land near Brushwood Junior School to make way for 900 new homes.

Campaign group Brown Not Green, which has been fighting the plans, hosted the meeting.

Chiltern and South Bucks District councils’ joint Local Plan will see the hamlet of Lye Green join with Chesham.

According to David Lansdowne of Brown Not Green, Mrs Gillan spoke to crowds about a number of developments and explained the changes to methods local councils use when calculating the housing needs of the area.

Mrs Gillan is also believed to have said that if Chiltern and South Bucks District Council were required to adopt the new methodology, it would potentially result in around 1,600 more homes to be incorporated into the district, in addition to the 7,600 already calculated under the existing method.

Speaking on behalf of Brown Not Green, Philip Plato said that the location for the new homes was “unsustainable” in planning terms, adding that if developed, it would encourage more traffic.

Mr Plato also spoke about the strain on the town’s infrastructure, adding that development of a green belt site, which would take high quality agricultural land, could only put “further strain upon the existing infrastructure in the whole town”.

He said: “Brown Not Green acknowledges that Chesham needs to do its part in contributing to the supply of new housing, but developing green field and particularly green belt sites is not the answer.”

Mr Lansdowne said Mrs Gillan “emphatically denied” that central government set housing targets or required councils to develop homes in the district, when asked by Mr Plato whether it was the government driving the Local Plan.

More details of the meeting can be found at www.brownnotgreen.com.