This has turned out to be quite a week for Jonathan Smales, former managing director and international trustee of Greenpeace UK.

The organisation he led from 1986 to the end of 1990 has joined forces with four local authorities including the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and instructed lawyers to press for a judicial review to challenge Monday’s House of Commons majority of 296 in favour of building a third runway at Heathrow. 

The adversaries’ objection is based on the grounds that it will further pollute the environment for those living under the flight path.

Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday Mr Smales will be hoping to win support for a proposal put forward by the development company of which he is executive chairman to build up to 400 homes in the Gomm Valley. 

The site, which lies between the eastern edge of High Wycombe and the villages of Penn and Tylers Green, has never been in the Green Belt. 

In planning terms it has been classed as a reserved greenfield site – in other words only to be drawn into use for housing development when all other options have been exhausted much in the same way as commercial enterprises set up a reserve fund for financial emergencies.

A land grab situation arose for Wycombe in 2014 when five sites on the council’s reserved list had to be released to enable the district to build sufficient homes to match the government’s forecasted numbers to address the mounting housing crisis. 

One of the five sites released by the council was Gomm Valley, the last undeveloped chalk valley in Wycombe. It includes areas of Special Scientific Interest.

Geographically the valley stretches from the Peregrine Business Park at the top of Gomm Road off the A40 London Road on the southern boundary to the fields and paddocks at Ashwells on the northern-most tip.

The eastern boundary follows the line of back gardens of properties on Hammersley Lane and Sandpits Lane eventually reaching Hammersley Lane on the south east corner.

The western boundary is defined by Cock Lane and the back gardens of the properties on Pimms Grove.

Councillor David Johncock, the cabinet member for planning and sustainability, says the priority for the council has always been to meet its obligations in terms of building the requisite number of homes set out in the Local Plan but in such a way that they harmonise as far as possible with the Gomm Valley landscape.

To that end, he chaired a liaison group made of local residents and councillors to set the parameters for the scheme. 

Their conclusions formed the framework for the development brief adopted by the council in July last year.

“This is more than just a wish list,” warns Cllr Johncock. “It is a document which carries real weight. Any planning application we receive will have to show how it measures up against the development brief.”  

To minimise the visual impact, the main thrust of the council’s master plan is  to limit the built environment to four separate areas in the valley.

The majority of the properties will be three storey. The new primary school included in the plan will be two storey. In the lowest part of the valley there will be  flats that are four storeys high.

Densities across the built up areas pinpointed in the outline plan vary from 20 homes per hectare up to 75 homes per hectare.

On the positive side, the development brief includes a new link road to lessen traffic build-up on Cock Lane, a buffer between Wycombe and Tylers Green will be retained, existing wildlife habitats won’t be disturbed and the public will have access via new footpaths and cycleways to great swathes of local countryside previously out of bounds because it was privately owned.

For its part, landowner Aviva has chosen a development company set up by an environmentalist whose whole life has been dedicated to respecting the planet.

Jonathan Smales, founder and director of Human + Nature has gone on record as saying: “The homes [at Gomm Valley] will be among the greenest the UK has seen. We will build a place – a new type of place – that will stand the test of time and make the whole town proud.

“Gomm Valley is a beautiful and sensitive area that demands a bespoke plan and designs. We will build homes and a unique place that honours the settings, restores the chalk grassland and other valuable habitats.

“We intend to provide community facilities, a local food growing programme and restaurant, a new primary school, beautiful streets safe for children to play in and a network of public rights of way that will provide access into a new ecological park.”

This weekend, starting with a session from 5pm-8pm this evening (Friday), continuing tomorrow (10am-5pm) and into Sunday (10am-4pm), he and all those involved with the proposed Gomm Valley development want you to turn up at the marquee next to the Peregrine Business Park, hear what they have to say, look at the plans and give them your views.

If you have any bright ideas, they say they’re keen to hear them. 

On balance, it seems likely Mr Smales will have an easier ride winning support for his housing development in a beautiful green valley on the edge of High Wycombe than his Greenpeace pals will have with their plan to overturn the proposal which has the backing of the majority of MPs for a new runway at Heathrow.