AN estimated 400 people turned out on Saturday (April 18) to show their support for a campaign against a proposed housing estate in the countryside outside the boundary of Wellington.

The Protect Wellington demonstration was the second action day called to highlight the threat to the town posed by Pegasus Group’s plans to build 250 houses.

Protesters gathered on one of the 34 acres of fields to the south of the A38 relief road earmarked by the developers and took part in a guided walk on public footpaths across the land.

They were encouraged to take photographs as they walked and to send them with their messages of protest by email or letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Protect Wellington wants to remind Sir Keir of the promises he made when promoting the Government’s plans to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029 to ease the country’s housing crisis and to relax planning regulations to make it easier for developers.

Sir Keir’s quotes included ‘We are not going to plough through farmland’ and ‘We are not gonna build all over the countryside. That is a nonsense, of course. Nobody wants to do that’.

Saturday’s event was part of a national day of action organised by the volunteer-run group Community Planning Alliance (CPA)

The demonstration was attended by Wellington’s MP Gideon Amos, who told the crowd: “I care about this environment as deeply as you do.

“Crucially, you are a community and you elect your councillors to decide where homes and development should go and the Government should not be taking away the roles and the rights and the powers of your community and your local planning committee to decide these applications.

“You should have the decision here in Wellington about where there is development, what houses are built.

“Communities are not the enemy, they should be listened to, and you should be in the driving seat about how well you can develop in the future.

“That is the message I take to Ministers on a regular basis.

“They do not always listen, there are more on that side than there are on mine, but we have opposed these planning reforms right from the get-go.

“Whatever we need on terms of houses, you need to have a say as to where they go and what happens.

“We have to defend our planning system, we have to defend community rights and community voices, and I am with you.”

Protect Wellington organiser and town Cllr Steve Mercer said at least 200 communities across the country were simultaneously staging CPA demonstrations against local housing proposals.

Cllr Mercer said: “We are part of a big national movement to make the Government know we are dissatisfied.

“It is madness to continue building across prime country farmland such as this.

“Once these farmlands and habitats are lost we will never get them back again.

“They are worth fighting for.”

Somerset Council, which is preparing shortly to determine the Pegasus application, has received 200 letters of objection.