ACTION groups whose seven villages are threatened with housing development on their green belt have given the minister in charge seven reasons why the plan breaches the government’s own policy.

The groups, collectively known as the Dorset Green Belt Protection Consortium, have also asked John Denham MP, secretary of state for communities and local government, to meet with them.

Terry Stewart, president of Dorset Campaign to Protect Rural England on behalf of the consortium, said they want Mr Denham to review additional facts about the issue.

They also want to support the High Court legal challenge which Dorset councils are planning, because the EU required environmental assessment has not been carried out.

Mr Denham recently replaced Hazel Blears in steering the government’s controversial Regional Spatial Strategy, which recommends nearly 6,500 homes for the district over the next 20 years.

Mr Stewart said: “We are waiting with trepidation to hear what his response is.

“Since John Denham took over there has been a complete and utter silence on what his view is on regional strategies.”

The consortium says the plan for building new homes in Lytchett Minster, Throop and Holdenhurst and in three East Dorset villages lacks democratic legitimacy, having been proposed by planning inspectors without statutory review, and is not supported by the county council or East Dorset District Council.

The groups also say there has been no strategic environmental assessment for Lytchett Minster or the North Bournemouth areas, and all Dorset councils have mounted a legal challenge against the proposals to build in the Green Belt.

They say no funding has been set aside for infrastructure for the proposed new developments, and any development will add cars to the roads as the new populations try to get to work, causing further traffic congestion and air pollution.

They also point out that planning policy states that there should be a presumption that housing development should first be on previously developed land, and that environmentally sensitive land should be protected.

A spokesman for Mr Denham said the department would respond in due course.