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Chesham · Buckinghamshire

Background

How a Chesham community came together to defend the Green Belt — and why brownfield-first is the fairer, greener path to the homes our district needs.

A community response

BNG was created by local people as a consequence of the former Chiltern & South Bucks Council (CSBDC) publishing in 2015 a consultation draft Local Plan with Issues & Options involving release of numerous areas of Green Belt land NE of Chesham totalling c. 667 hectares of mainly agricultural land for Housing & Industrial Development.  

These proposals directly affected the hamlets & villages around Chesham of, Botley, Lye Green, Ashley Green, Ley Hill, Orchard Leigh but with significant injurious impacts upon the main town of Chesham too.  This resulted in significant community pushback and a petition with almost 1,800 signatories was rapidly submitted in January 2016 and Brown Not Green (BNG) was incorporated as not for profit private company limited by guarantee.  

BNG’s petition and initial work reflected the local opinion that housing should be prioritised to be built upon brownfield land before green fields with Green Belt being the very last resort.

Whilst the initial proposals by the former Council were slowly scaled back over subsequent years, BNG’s efforts became focused on 57.26 hectares located to the NE of Chesham between the hamlet of Lye Green and the town. This area remained under consideration for a housing allocation with all of the fields being removed from Green Belt protection but for a housing allocation initially for 900 homes on just over half of the land with suggestion of yet more home coming later.

What BNG has done since 2016

BNG is administered by a small organising committee of unpaid local volunteers. Since 2016 we have undertaken or accomplished the following:

  • Raised public awareness of inappropriate Green Belt development and recited local concerns to MP and Councillors.
  • Organised public meetings in the Town Hall and elsewhere and published articles online and in local press and magazines such as Your Chesham.
  • Collaborated with other local community groups such as The Chesham Society, Chesham MasterPlan (now Chesham Renaissance CIC), CPRE and others.
  • Made various formal written submissions in response to Regulation 18 and Regulation 19 public consultations undertaken by the Council, as well as participating in other Council consultations (e.g. Call for Sites, Brownfield Register).
  • Offered advice to numerous residents, including how to make claims for Prescriptive Rights relating to rear garden gates backing onto the fields proposed for development.
  • Made six applications for public footpaths to be adopted across the fields proposed for development, under a Definitive Map Modification Order.
  • Made application (initially successfully) for the fields to be listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) under s.88 of the Localism Act 2011.
  • Organised professional expert evidence and representation by a planning barrister at the last Local Plan Public Examination in 2019, where the Local Plan was dismissed by independent Inspectors.
  • Made two applications under s.15 of The Commons Act 2006 to have the fields at Lye Green adopted as a Town or Village Green (TVG), based on evidence from over 250 people who confirmed they had indulged as of right in lawful sports and pastimes upon the land for a period of at least 20 years.
  • The TVG applications resulted in a Public Inquiry held over six days in March 2023, again with a barrister representing the community. (The applications were unsuccessful for technical reasons recited in the published decisions.)
  • Raised over £72,000 since 2016 to fund the aforementioned legal and expert submissions.
  • Participated in the public consultation that saw the Town Council adopt a Neighbourhood Plan for Chesham in 2025, and made representations in response to various planning applications in and around the town.

Not against development — for the right development

BNG's responses to local planning applications are not always negative. We recognise that development is necessary when it is for the right type of housing in the right place, and so BNG has supported schemes that seek to reuse redundant or underused land previously developed, or other brownfield opportunities in accordance with our ethos.

BNG has also made representations where developers have sought to avoid Environmental Impact Statements when preparing significant development locally.

Impacts on Chesham

The proposals made by CSBDC between 2015 and 2019 directly affected the hamlets and villages around Chesham — Botley, Lye Green, Ashley Green and Orchard Leigh — with significant injurious impacts on the main town of Chesham too, mainly from:

  • Increased traffic and congestion.
  • Consequent worsening of air quality.
  • Water abstraction and drainage run-off.
  • Impact on globally scarce local chalk streams.
  • Loss of good quality agricultural land.
  • Impact on wildlife, including endangered species and biodiversity.
  • Greater strain on surface water drainage and the locally aged sewerage infrastructure.

Funding the campaign

BNG funded expert professional evidence to be presented in response to the Regulation 19 responses in 2019 and at the Local Plan Examination in Public in 2020. This was achieved by direct donations, as well as through a crowdfunding platform (CrowdJustice) and JustGiving.

The CSBDC Local Plan was subsequently criticised by the Local Plan Inspectors and the Council withdrew that Plan in October 2020. Since then, Bucks Council have been preparing a new Plan covering a much wider area — the whole county.

Key documents

The following are BNG's work and other relevant documents we have undertaken, funded or been directly involved with:

Where we are today

For over 11 years, the focus of BNG has been on the fields NE of the town near Lye Green. However, whilst we have been successful so far, Chesham residents may not yet be aware of the scale of proposed speculative housing development around the area that may yet arise from developer-led planning applications.

The Council had previously considered many Green Belt sites around Chesham, including some provisionally redesignated as "Grey Belt" and therefore considered for development, within the Regulation 18 public consultation undertaken by the Council in March 2026. This prompted BNG — in collaboration with the Chesham Society and the Chiltern Society — to convene a Public Meeting in Chesham Town Hall on Saturday 9 May 2026. Click here to view BNG slides from that presentation. 

Whilst those Grey Belt sites and other Green Belt proposals have now been abandoned by Buckinghamshire Council, they have created considerable public concern and may in themselves encourage speculative developers to promote schemes on such sites.

One such scheme, already being promoted in 2025, involved part of Lye Green fields off Lycrome Road. Please see below the proposals and BNG responses to a public exhibition undertaken by the developer Caprean/Geltex in 2025. 

The last resort

BNG are not saying our supporters don't want any development for Chesham — but we feel the permanent loss of Green Belt and good quality agricultural land has profound effects for future generations and must be the last resort.

Chesham's topography, congested roads, aged infrastructure and proximity to the Chiltern National Landscape (formerly AONB) and the globally scarce chalk stream river, mean that development around Chesham must be very carefully planned. Simply rolling back Green Belt has profound impacts for the future of our town and local wildlife.

Chesham is unusual in having several community groups who recognise that the town does need to provide additional housing — but that it must be sustainable and affordable. BNG have grave reservations about some of the speculative schemes being promoted by some developers.

Please monitor this website for further updates, or join our mailing list and social media channels.

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