A campaigner has launched a ‘houses for need, not greed’ petition calling for a halt to further massive building projects which are already concreting over acres of green fields.

Education consultant and former feature writer Georgina Allen claims that local communities are being ignored and sidelined in the race to build thousands of new homes across Devon.

And she pointed to her hometown of Totnes where hundreds of houses are now being constructed on all sides of the town – and more are in the pipeline.

She has managed to raise almost 1,000 signatures for her petition headed Stop the Bulldozers Destroying Devon – which is also going ahead on line – in just three days.

She aims to present the completed petition to local authorities and offer it up to local pressure groups to use as ammunition in their fights to halt further development projects.

‘People need to make a stand and voice their opposition to this horrific development,’ said Georgina who lives in Totnes Fore Street. ‘I have noticed that local campaigns seem to die after their campaign has failed and they just disappear.

‘Totnes and Dartington have been disproportionately hit by housing developments but I also see it as a Devon-wide problem.’

Hundreds of homes are currently under construction at Baltic Wharf, Camomile `lawn in Bridgetown, Follaton Oak, land opposite Puddavine and the Origins development at Dartington. More are in the pipeline at Great Court Farm, Bridgetown, and a planning process is currently under way to identify even more sites in the Totnes and Dartington area for future development.

Ms Allen’s petition claims that the massive development proposals constitute a short-term profit for developers resulting in then ‘destruction’ of countryside, towns and villages.

The petition says: ‘We urge and demand that our council put a moratorium on any more large-scale development until they have involved the local population in the decision-making process, organise new infrastructure and stop this ad hoc devastation of our county.

‘The mass developments going up at the moment are totally unsuitable, almost entirely unaffordable for local people and concerned only with profit for the few over the wishes of the population.

‘These are ugly, identikit houses crammed on to precious green field sites and around villages and towns – 500 houses around a village of 50, 5,000 new houses on farmland near Dartmoor with no new infrastructure whatsoever. This is not sustainable.

‘Our opinions are being ignored and we feel utterly sidelined in this process. Our countryside is being concreted over for the benefit of a few individuals and companies and to the absolute detriment of our wildlife, our environment, our communities, our jobs, our infrastructure, our services, our towns, our history, our well-being and the future of our beautiful county.

‘This is a land grab and we ask for local government to take control before our county is ruined.’

She said: ‘There is a huge groundswell of public opinion against this development. People feel totally disempowered. They feel left out of the planning process.’

But she pointed out that campaigns can have weight behind them when they are backed up with petitions containing thousands of signatures.

Anyone who wants to support the petition can contact Georgina on [email protected] or go to www.the petition site.com/596/408/991/ save-devon-from-the-bulldozers.