Initial plans for up to 150 homes on a former reserve site in Bourne End have been submitted. 

Avant Homes and Croudace Homes have applied to Wycombe District Council to build homes on Slate Meadow - just weeks after planning chief Cllr David Johncock admitted an application could be imminent. 

Slate Meadow was one of five reserve sites along with Abbey Barn South, Abbey Barn North, Terriers Farm and Gomm Valley and Ashwells to be released for development in a controversial move by WDC in October 2014.

Campaigners have fought for years to protect the green space from development. 

The application that was submitted last week is an outline application, meaning details about how the development will look are still vague at the moment. 

However, the developers say a village green - at the northeastern edge of Slate Meadow - will remain, and will be "improved" to maintain pedestrian access. 

A "landscape corridor" linking the River Wye to the village green will help maintain a "visual and physical separation" between Bourne End and Wooburn. 

The village green will also be "embellished" with a community park, with formal and informal areas for walking and areas of semi-permanent and permanent wetlands. 

The new housing development will be accessed by a new road off Stratford Drive. 

According to the developers, work on the site will take place in three phases. Phase one will see the new access road and enabling works carried out, while phase two and three will see the release of two parcels of 75 homes each. 

The plans say 40 per cent of the bed spaces provided will be affordable. 

In response to concerns about the wildlife on the site, the developers have assured residents the active badger sett on the meadow will be saved, and a number of bat and bird boxes will be installed in the trees.