Rainford residents marched on the town centre on Saturday afternoon to deliver responses to a consultation on green belt housing plans for the village.
The protestors set off from near the Golden Lion pub at approximately 1pm and walked to Victoria Square and the town hall, many carrying green balloons.
Around 150 went on the march, with 400 gathering in St Helens town hall for the handover.
The Rainford Action Group was set up to protest against the proposals, making their formal submission to the council as part of the consultation today.
Campaigners have blasted development plans as “fundamentally flawed” and in need of a “radical rewrite”.
The proposals seek to remove seven sites in Rainford from the green belt, one for employment use while at least 1,140 houses would be built on the others.
Campaigners say Rainford would grow by more than a third, at the expense of rare farmland.
They also say the village’s roads are already congested, the village has no NHS dentist, there is insufficient public transport, and local GP surgeries are already struggling to provide services to the current population.
Campaigners say the plan will see 26 per cent more houses in the borough than population figures suggest are needed and there is no plan to bring empty properties in St Helens into use.
They also claim the type of housing planned does not reflect the borough’s changing demographics and that there is no basic plan on how the borough’s infrastructure would cope.
However, senior councillors have expressed fears the town risks falling behind neighbouring areas if it does not make itself attractive to developers.
A council report states that the borough does not have a five-year housing supply, meaning its policies relating to housing are out-of-date and not consistent with national planning policy.
It also says there are insufficient suitable brownfield sites to accommodate housing and employment needs making it “necessary to release greenfield sites for development, including in the green belt.”
Article originally published by St Helens Star
