Online petition against new homes on Hucknall green belt at Whyburn Farm now past 3,000 signatures

The petition was started up by the people behind the Facebook group Hucknall Against Whyburn Farm Development after the shock news emerged of Ashfield District Council’s proposals to build 3,000 new homes on green belt land as part of its new draft local plan.

Jemma Chambers, the group’s founder, said: “We’ve passed 3,000 online and we’ve got 32 paper petitions out with local businesses so we will have more signatures to come.

"We probably won’t be anywhere near the magical 10,000 signatures but you never know what we’ll end up with.

"We’re still delighted with the support we’ve had though.

"We had the initial rush and then we thought things would calm down, but actually every day we see another 10 or 20 people have signed, plus a few more at the weekend, and we’re always getting emails and questions on the Facebook group asking ‘where can I sign the petition?’

"We know people are going into businesses and signing it, so who knows how many signatures we’ll actually end up with?""

The online petition closes on Friday, November 12 to give the organisers time to add in the paper petitions and remove any duplicates before getting it down to the council in time for November 15.