PROTESTERS objecting to the threat of thousands more houses being built in south-east Dorset are being urged to join a rally in Bournemouth Square next weekend.

The event, at 11.30am on Sunday, September 14, is to demonstrate the strength of opinion against a government diktat that 48,100 new homes must be built in the area by 2026.

Secretary of state for communities and local government minister, Hazel Blears, has said that the development must include a new town at Lytchett Minster and 7,250 houses in the green belt around Poole and Bournemouth.

The rally will be addressed by celebrities and Dorset MPs. It has been organised on behalf of the SE Dorset Consortium, which is made up of Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, East Dorset, Purbeck and Dorset councils, plus seven parish action groups and the Dorset branch of the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE).

CPRE president Terry Stewart said: "The secretary of state is demanding the building of a new town in the green belt that no democratic council asked for.

"She totally ignored all the expensive research and evidence produced at the public inquiry, and wants to desecrate beautiful Dorset."

The consortium points out that the government demands are not accompanied by any promises of extra money for infrastructure such as new roads, schools and health care.

It also claims the development would lead to 60,000 more cars and 5,000 more lorries on the roads, causing a rise in air pollution and the possible introduction of congestion charging.

Among the groups attending the rally will be the Keep Corfe Mullen Green Group, which has funded banners and placards to use at the Bournemouth protest and future demonstrations in Dorset and at Westminster.

Corfe Mullen Parish Council will host a public meeting in the Corfe Mullen Village Hall on Tuesday, September 30, at 7.30pm.