New Government guidelines unveiled this week say 60,000 new homes must be built across the Gedling, Broxtowe and Hucknall area by 2026 on top of the hundreds of homes already earmarked to be built each year in the area.

Under the proposals as many as 20,000 new homes would be built in and around Hucknall and on green belt land currently separating the Hucknall border from Annesley and Kirkby.

Ashfield District Council chiefs now fear the scheme will create an urban sprawl and lead to a loss of identity for Kirkby and Annesley.

They also fear the massive development will lead to traffic chaos along the A38 through Kirkby and the A611 through Annesley, as well as increasing pollution and overwhelming the district's infrastructure.

Ashfield District Council leader Coun Jason Zadrozny told Chad the proposals were totally unacceptable.

"If these houses are built Kirkby and Annesley will lose their own individual identity and will be sucked into part of a greater Nottingham city area," said Coun Zadrozny.

"These homes will not be nice places to live, they will be high rise flats and poor quality houses that will create a ghetto. We are proud that Kirkby has its own separate identity and we want to keep it that way.

"Some development is good if it benefits the area, but building homes like this does nothing for Ashfield. We need to protect our green space areas.

"This will just lead to more congestion, pollution and many other problems and it cannot be allowed to happen. We should be building on brown belt areas and not destroying our countryside."

And his views were echoed by Coun Austin Rathe, deputy leader and ward member for Hucknall, who said it was vital people in the area stood up against the Government proposals.

Said Coun Rathe: "We cannot allow this scheme to go ahead and as a council we will do all we can to oppose it. This is just a massive sprawl. This will have a huge impact on our area in the coming years. The roads will be overwhelmed and there will need to be more schools and hospitals.

"We are supposed to be improving the area for people not destroying it. We do not want to create a ghetto area with low quality houses."