Residents have reacted furiously at a suggestion to develop land on the outskirts of the scenic village of East Bergholt.

News that Babergh Council has been asked to consider including land bordered by Hadleigh Road, Hughes Road, the B1070 and A12 in its local plan for the ten-year period to 2011 has been greeted with horror.

Mervyn Austin, chairman of East Bergholt Parish Council, said: "We were gobsmacked. It came out of the blue."

Now councillors and residents are fighting to prevent the 80-acre site on the edge of the Stour Valley conservation area - classed as an area of outstanding natural beauty - being earmarked for housing.

Parish councillors at a recent meeting voted unanimously to oppose the plan and listed ten objections.

Their protests included:

The land being outside the village envelope

The development altering the character of the village

The scheme destroying a natural habitat and the millennium wood planted only a few months ago

And the proposal would represent green field development.

The council has also pointed out to the district council that East Bergholt has already had a high proportion of development and did not think villagers wanted to become urbanised.

Residents say the village's primary and high schools are already full, amenities in the village stretched to capacity and roads not suitable for more traffic.

A spokesman for the district council stressed that no planning application had been made and the suggestion that the land should be considered as a potential site for housing had not come from the landowner or a developer.

The idea, the spokesman said, had been made by one person and would now have to be considered by the district council.

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