A new campaign has been launched to protect Green Belt land around a south Bucks town from being redeveloped into housing.

Furious members of The Beaconsfield Society is hoping to raise £50,000 to challenge the Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils’ Joint Local Plan in which 1,700 homes have been proposed for in and around Wilton Park and the A40 Pyebush Roundabout.

Almost 118 hectares could be removed from the land.

Alison Wheelhouse, one the leaders of the campaign, branded the options favoured by the two councils “ill-conceived and flawed”.

She said: “The rules for releasing green belt land are being ignored or plain broken – this needs to be challenged.

“Releasing green belt purely for profit is wrong.”

And Pete Foster, a member of the society, thinks the approach the two councils have taken “feels a lot like a decision had been made even before the various consultations had begun”.

He added that a potential 1,700 homes near the new A355 relief road would not provide any relief to the increased traffic, branding it a “total sham”.

He said: “This is not something to be undertaken lightly and not without significantly more time spent considering the ramifications for the town.

“This is all rushing through because the council has an arbitrary house building target to reach, but for sure we will not be rushing anywhere in the gridlock traffic jam this will create.”

But a spokesman for the council said the development of the Joint Local Plan was not something that was being “undertaken lightly”, saying the councils understood concerns about traffic.

She said: “We are seeking to produce a local plan that properly safeguards our local environment, which includes the Green Belt and the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

“We fully appreciate the concern the prospect of potential change can create in communities and we have worked hard to ensure residents have had an active part in developing the plan by carrying out an extensive public consultation over this period.

“We are working with service and infrastructure providers to consider the need for new and improved roads and public transport as well as schools and healthcare facilities.

“Our aim in developing the Local Plan has always been to meet the needs of the area, particularly in providing enough housing so that everybody has a place to live, whilst protecting the Green Belt and retaining the special character of our communities.”

A public meeting will be held by The Beaconsfield Society at the Fitzwilliams Centre in Beaconsfield at 8pm today (Friday).