A CAMPAIGN has been launched warning there is only 12 weeks

to save Cheltenham.

Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Mark Coote

has started a petition for people to protest against the plans

to build thousands of houses in and around the town.

The proposals are part of the Regional Spatial Strategy

devised by the South West Regional Assembly, which says 8,100

houses should be built in Cheltenham, with 1,300 in Leckhampton

and 5,000 on green fields next to Swindon Village.

Public consultation on the RSS finishes on October 17.

Mr Coote (below) said: "I've organised this mainly because

if you talk to people in Cheltenham they are very worried about

the pace of house-building.

"This is exacerbated by last year's flooding because there

was a lack of run-off and there's consternation about infill,

or garden grabbing."

Mr Coote says the RSS public consultation is largely a

cosmetic exercise.

He added: "We're not being asked if we want these houses,

we're being told we're getting them and do we want them here or

there?

"Another 20,000 people will change Cheltenham forever, and

people are worried not just about losing fields but about

congestion and traffic, will there be enough schools our GP

services or dentists?"

The would-be MP says many villages in the county would

benefit from development.

He said: "Some of the villages are dying because people are

leaving, and market towns in the Forest of Dean need more

people, but the SWRA have decided to put all the houses around

Glo- ucester and Chelten ham."

Other campaigns are fighting further building on green

spaces around the town.

The Leckhampton Green Land Action Group is protesting about

plans to build on greenbelt land to the south west of

Cheltenham and Save the Countryside has organised protest walks

against proposals for the greenbelt between Swindon Village and

Elmstone Hardwicke and Uckington.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local

Government, which commissioned the RSS, said: "The region has a

real housing shortage.

"It is the only region with above-average house prices and

below-average incomes. The South West Plan sets clear ambitious

targets to tackle climate change, reduce carbon emissions and

help ensure that new housing development is delivered in a

sustainable way with the right infrastructure in place.

"Tough new planning rules to protect new homes against flood

risk mean the Environment Agency must be consulted before all

new developments are approved."

Cheltenham Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood has already

launched a petition against the proposals.

His office manager David Fidgeon said: "We've had more than

2,000 signatures on the petition."

Coun John Webster (LD, St Mark's), one of the founders of

Save the Countryside, said: "That campaign handed in a paper

petition signed by 1,200 people and also has one online.

Between that, Martin's petition and Mark Coote's, we should

make ourselves heard."