EAST Dorset residents staged a protest march against proposals for 500 houses on Friday.

More than 100 residents and West Parley Parish councillors took part in the demonstration from The Stocks Inn pub to Furzehill to make their objections heard.

They are concerned about a potential 32 per cent increase in the number of houses in the village and the toll on its treasured greenbelt boundary fields.

Parish council Chairman Richard Heaslip handed 30 residents’ letters and the parish council’s eight-page official response to East Dorset District Council’s Core Strategy as the public consultation closed.

Cllr Heaslip said: “We feel that this has just been dumped ‘top down’ on us.

“Apart from taking out greenbelt land, which is our key gap from Bournemouth, these proposals lump us in with Ferndown.

“It is an entirely separate community.

“Building 520 houses is just a whopping unsustainable 32 per cent to our existing additional housing stock.”

Mr Heaslip is calling on the council to follow the coalition government’s planning policy and listen to residents’ worries.

These include proposals for two roads between Christchurch Road and New Road to support the new housing estates.

The parish council was voted in en bloc at last year’s election on a manifesto to save the greenbelt.

Councillors have suggested where 100 homes could be built but say that 500 new houses is just too many.

East Dorset District council’s chief executive David McIntosh said: “The council’s consultation on the Core Strategy closes on June 25 after 12 weeks. The proposals for West Parley are just one part of a large and significant document.

“All of the proposals for the district are based on sound evidence relating to housing needs, transport assessments and shopping studies as well as environmental and open space assessments. The community and interested stakeholders have been involved in the process for several years and the comments submitted today will be taken into account by the council and the Secretary of State, alongside all of the others comments received to date.”