A few months ago, Portman Estate lodged an application for planning consent to build a massive housing estate of 450-500 homes on our Green Belt adjacent to Amersham Road and hundreds of you objected to it.

Bucks Council's planning officer, quite rightly, recommended that the application be refused and the planning committee refused the application on 11 grounds including the fact that the land is Green Belt and "very special circumstances" do not exist to develop it.

Portman Estate have now appealed against this decision and have asked that the appeal be dealt with by way of an Inquiry. An Inquiry is the most formal (and expensive) type of planning appeal because it involves barristers and experts presenting evidence and cross-examinations, rather like a court case.

We intend to attend the Planning Appeal Inquiry and present expert evidence with our barrister present to cross-examine the applicant's expert's evidence. To fight the appeal will cost more than anticipated (and more than the funds we have left over from the daft Local Plan fight) because Portman have required the appeal to be dealt with as an Inquiry rather than solely by submission of written evidence and we will need to engage our barrister and planning consultants to represent us. The Inquiry is scheduled to last 16 days.

We are very sorry that the Planning Inquiry will require more funds than we have and that we have had to take the decision to ask for donations to cover the costs of our barrister and experts. We believe that Portman Estate are gaming the system. Unfortunately, the timescale is very tight. Our experts must be in a position to submit their statement of case by 21st July and, therefore we need donations urgently.

Early indications are that we will need an additional £40,000. Please can you donate to protect our Green Belt? We would need 800 people to donate £50 or 400 people to donate £100, but please donate whatever you can.The Save Our Green Belt Team

The Beaconsfield Society