KEEP off our green belt land – this is the message coming from Ongar residents who are protecting the town from a potential development of hundreds of homes.
Residents of the Shelley estate are coming together to show the town and district council that keeping Ongar green is the top of their agenda.
Paul Mendel, of Fyfield Road, said: "It could be 600 homes or so, imagine what that would do to a town this size.
"The worst of it all is that Ongar Town Council is recommending areas that are green belt. The land behind my house is fields as far as you can see.
"We need to keep Ongar green for not just our kids, but our kids' kids. They haven't given any thought, not just to the environmental damage, but the impact that many people living there will have.
"The areas that the town council are proposing to go forward for development are to either end of the High Street.
"The High Street is busy enough as it is but these new houses would put a huge strain on the infrastructure of the town."
The 47-year-old added: "I know I don't own the view behind my house, we all know that. We are just protecting land that is not right for development."
One 66-year-old Ongar resident, who lives in the house he was born in on Fyfield Road, said the development does not make sense.
John Barker said: "I am a retired geography teacher and I have lived here for decades. The areas the town council are recommending will destroy the nature of the town.
"It would create a dumbbell shaped development – two large areas of population linked by a single road through the middle.
"They have protected the areas nearer the High Street when it is these areas that make more logical sense to develop. Development is inevitable – we know that houses need to be built, but building them on the proposed areas would cripple the town.
"Ongar is a one road town, all the traffic has to go down the High Street.
"If they built parallel relief roads and houses along them you would have the infrastructure problem solved.
"The town council is recommending the worst development options possible.
"If I walk due north from my garden gate the first town I would come to is Saffron Walden – that is how green it is."
Mr Mendel is the founder member of a Facebook group called Keep Ongar Green. The group has seen a surge in popularity in recent weeks, now with nearly 400 members.
Mr Mendel said: "People in the town don't even know about this threat. We want to tell everyone and get as many people involved as possible."
A spokesman for the council said: "EFDC is working towards a new Local Plan which will guide development in Epping Forest District for the next 20 years.
"The first full consultation, called Community Choices, took place in 2012 and collected the views of almost 6,000 people and organisations.
"At least 70 per cent of respondents objected to all of the potential development sites in and around Ongar. There was slightly less objection for potential sites to the north of the A414 than there was for potential sites to the south.
"The potential options within Community Choices were not planning applications, or even pre-applications, they were only options on which the council sought the opinions
"For this reason it is highly unlikely that all of the potential options consulted on for Ongar would go forward to the next round of consultation."
Aimi Middlehurst, Ongar Town Council clerk, said: "When considering its responses to the Local Plan consultation, the council was careful to listen to all the views put to it as well as those expressed by members representing all the wards in the Ongar Town Council area."
If you wish to join Keep Ongar Green go to www.facebook.com/groups/391816714222638/ or use the short link http://bit.ly/OGKOG
