A PETITION has been set up by residents to protect the environment from thousands of homes.

Colchester's Local Plan proposes are garden community on the border of Colchester and Tendring, to deliver up to 2,500 homes in the next 15 years.

Greenstead Independents set up the petition in a bid to protect individual identities of neighbourhoods.

The petition, which has received 409 signatures in five days, mentions calling for the green buffer between Greenstead, Longridge and the new development is equal to the buffers between Wivenhoe and Elmstead Market, with no residential development west of Slough Road.

Residents have also called for the green buffer from Clingoe Hill to Bromley Road to protect the current Site of Importance for Nature Conservation.

They also stressed the importance of affordable housing.

Christopher Lee, who started Greenstead Independents, said: "Residents in east Colchester desperately need to come together to make a stand for what’s right because no-one else is going to.

"The area south of the A133 is where the university would expand. What it says in the Local Plan is that in this area they might build student accommodation.

"In other words, instead of no residential development they’re possibly going to build high-rise, high-density student flats."

The petition can be seen at www.change.org, search for Prevent development of Salary Brook Valley affecting residents of Greenstead and Longridge.

Mr Lee added: "We’re not against the development. There’s many boxes that need to be checked to make this a solution to Colchester’s problems and not just another one added to the list.

"One of these is that development is moved away Greenstead and north actually in to Tendring. The development was joint effort between the councils of Colchester, Braintree in Tendring with three garden villages being built across them. Why does Colchester have to accept one and a half developments so that Tendring only needs to have a half?

"We’d like to see the points raised in the petition met because the development is an opportunity for investment. It’ll be a disgrace if that investment never makes it down to the people it was meant for."

Colchester, Tendring, Braintree and Essex councils are running a consultation on the local plan until the middle of January so they can hear residents' views.