MP Gideon Amos called for green spaces to be protected from development when he spoke in Parliament last week, just a fortnight after taking part in a Protect Wellington protest rally over plans to build 250 houses in fields outside the town.

Mr Amos, who is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on housing and communities, was speaking during a debate on the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.

He told fellow MPs: “We strongly support the prioritisation of brownfield development.

“The Liberal Democrats are grateful to the Government for listening to calls for better protection of greenfield land, and for taking steps through this Bill to encourage the prioritisation of brownfield.

“That will help to ensure development is happening in the right places, on land that needs to be developed, and in consultation with the communities that surround it.

“This is not about opposing growth, it is about delivering that growth sustainably and making the best use of land that has been developed before.

“Although I accept the Minister’s argument that some flexibility is needed to meet housing demand, if it results in greenfield and green spaces becoming the default, we will have failed and got the balance fundamentally wrong.

“Green spaces are essential to community wellbeing.

“They support mental and physical health, provide space for recreation, and contribute to the identity of local places.

“Once lost, they cannot be replaced.

“If brownfield land is not properly prioritised, development pressure will fall on those spaces.

“We therefore welcome this step in the right direction by the Minister, but we will continue to ask the Government to go further on prioritising brownfield.”

Mr Amos said Lib Dems would continue to challenge the Government on planning autonomy ‘because we are a party that believes in real community representation and local governance decided by local people’.

He said: “We will always fight to ensure communities have a genuine say in how their areas are run, and that decisions are not handed down from Whitehall.

“Decisions should be made by and with local people, not done to them.”

The Bill looks to speed up the transfer of some Whitehall powers to local leaders of strategic authorities, the creation of which the Government is encouraging.

The Government wants authorities led by elected mayors to manage strategic issues such as transport, housing, planning, and economic development.

Following the debate, Mr Amos said Government changes to the planning system meant local people had far less say.

Mr Amos said: “It is forcing councils to issue planning permissions for thousands of houses for private house builders, whether or not they will ever get built.

“When I spoke to protesters in Wellington recently, I was clear, new homes are needed but the Government have got it wrong.

“Local people should have a real say, and previously developed land should be used first.

“The homes most needed would be genuinely affordable ones, like council houses for local people, which developers are not going to deliver.”

The planning application for 250 houses outside Wellington has since been refused by Somerset Council.