Middlewick campaigners issue plea to Boris Johnson

Middlewick Ranges, which is owned by the Ministry of Defence, is expected to be sold for development next year when firing operations move to Fingringhoe.

If the MoD’s plans are successful, it will be kept in Colchester’s Local Plan and 1,000 houses built on the site which has been used as a firing range for more than 160 years.

But the Local Plan has yet to be signed off, and opponents are urging Colchester Council not to allow it to proceed unless all development at Middlewick is deleted.

Read more: Last ditch bid to save Middlewick from development emerges

In a show of the strength of feeling, more than 100 people gathered at the ranges to send a strong message to Mr Johnson, calling on him to stop the sale of the site dubbed the “green lungs of Colchester”.

Old Heath and Hythe councillor Lee Scordis said: “At the start of this year we all wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to stick by his pledge made at the 2021 Conservative Party conference that no homes will be built on green spaces.

“We also asked people to co-sign our letter and have received a huge number of responses. We hope the Prime Minister takes notice.

“Once this land is lost, it is lost forever. It is frankly ridiculous the MoD and the Conservatives feel it appropriate to sell off vital military land like this in the unstable world we live in.

“The Government talks about public health but then tries to build over its own land where people walk or exercise regularly.”

Veteran Berechurch councillor Dave Harris added: “We have been campaigning for more than four years for the sale of Middlewick to stopped.

“This is the only way to stop any homes being built here as the Government has stripped any powers councils have to stop developments like this”.

In 2016, the MoD announced 13 military sites, including Middlewick Ranges, were to be sold for housing.

It initially wanted 2,000 homes to be built on Middlewick but this was reduced to 1,000 in Colchester Council’s pending Local Plan.