Protest over plans for homes on Maidenhead golf course

Campaigners gathered outside Maidenhead Town Hall on Tuesday

Hundreds of people have attended a protest to oppose plans to build more than 2,000 homes on a golf course.

Windsor and Maidenhead council has earmarked the development of Maidenhead Golf Club in its local plan.

Up to 500 people protested outside the town hall on Tuesday urging councillors to vote against it when it comes to full council next month.

Campaigners said building on the golf course was "inappropriate".

It comes after golf club members in 2016 voted in favour to accept the council's £15.95m offer to surrender the lease of the 132-acre (53-hectare) site.

Maidenhead Golf Club agreed to give up its 24-year lease of the council-owned site early

But those opposed have called the local plan "out of date" and argued brownfield sites should be developed on instead and not "inappropriate" green space, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Speaking outside the town hall, campaign organiser Tina Quadrino said: "We need a borough local plan that puts the environment front and centre of everything that we do.

"A borough local plan that protects our natural resources and recognises the real value of green space in terms of its benefit to our health, our wellbeing, as well as to climate change."

Conservative councillor David Coppinger, lead for planning, previously said the golf course was "the most sustainable site" in the borough and the council would have to release greenbelt in the countryside if the proposal failed.

Councillors are due to vote on the borough local plan at an extraordinary meeting on 14 December.

Campaigners said greenbelt should not be built on