The group, known as REDRAG (Regional Earmarked Development Residents Action Group) have been knocking on doors, handing out information and encouraging as many people as possible to fill in the public consultation forms by August 30.

More than 200 people turned up to a demonstration on Monday and REDRAG plans to promote its cause at a public meeting in Stoke Mandeville Community Centre last night (Wednesday).

Mark Bowman, a resident of Aylesbury and co-founder of REDRAG, said: "I basically decided to do something because nobody seemed to be doing anything. It has been really bad the way this has been handled by Aylesbury Vale District Council.

"I'm not prepared to sit here and let this happen. We have only got till the end of August to say something and the forms are complicated, most people have not got time to fill them in.

"We want a voice, we want to be heard and we want to have a say on the future of how the area is developed and how it will affect our lives," he added.

Mr Bowman said that he thought Aylesbury Vale District Council had not looked hard enough at other areas where it could build new houses such as Broadfields and Weedon Hill.

Carole Paternoster, Aylesbury Vale District Council cabinet member for strategic planning, said: "I would encourage people to have their say as they have local knowledge on where would be the best place for the development and what we should be preserving."

"It all has to go to examination and it is fair enough if they can disprove the technical evidence that decides that the housing growth should go to the south."

Mr Bowman said that a branch of REDRAG had now been set up in Bedgrove and he urged other local communities in Walton Court and Hawkslade to do the same.

He said: "We have got the logos and information ready to give out. We want to galvanise people."

Aylesbury Vale residents have been able to comment on the Local Development framework (LDF) which details plans for building thousands of new houses in the 'southern growth arc' from Sedrup to Aston Clinton since July 19.

The consultation period still has three weeks to run until August 30 after which AVDC will use the comments received to inform the drafting of the submission documents.

To download the LDF go to www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk or call 01296 585439 or email avldf@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk

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Some of your comments so far:

The AVDC proposes to put 9,300 homes (plus commercial development and a crematorium) in a Southern Growth Arc on the edge of Aylesbury, between the A41 and the A418.

Looking at the plan for the Arc in the AVDC publication 'Aylesbury Allocated Sites – Development Plan Document' and comparing the area indicated for it with the actual areas allocated to 3000 homes (with commercial development) at Berryfields and 850 homes at Weedon Hill, it is difficult to see that this can be done without overwhelming such adjacent settlements as Stoke Mandeville, Bishopstone, Sedrup and the Bugle Horn, unless the housing density is extraordinarily high, to reduce land take.

Such intrusion on existing settlements would contravene the AVDC's own Spatial Vision and Spatial Objective of minimising impacts on the surrounding countryside and villages, despite there being a commitment to creating 'buffers' for existing communities.

The conclusion must be that too much is being proposed for the Southern Growth Arc and that many of these new homes should be allocated to other areas around Aylesbury.

Yours faithfully
T W Merrick (Mr)
Meadoway
Hartwell
Aylesbury

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I am not surprised there have been so few responses to the LDF. I intend to respond and have spent many hours over the past two weeks wading through the hundreds of pages of bureaucratic waffle.

I spent nearly 30 years working in accountancy and financial administration and this has challenged me as much as any commercial legalese. It is purported to be a "public consultation". Surely, therefore, it should be produced in a form which the average "Jo Public" can easily understand and respond to.

Robert Thornberry
Jasmine Crescent
Princes Risborough

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I am not opposed to building new homes, especially brown sites, but why so many here. The reason people move to Aylesbury is because its a small town in the middle of the countryside.

In many areas of the home counties new homes are springing up without the extra resourses of Doctors, hospitals, schools, extra policing and jobs.

Parents are finding it difficuilt to get siblings to go to the same schools as their older children because so many people are moving into the area also finding a doctor or dentist to take them on.


The housing should cover the whole of the country including the midlands and the north of the country.

Regards
Mrs S Pilbeam
Aylesbury

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