A campaigning couple say Alderley Edge faces losing its identity under plans to build 250 homes on green belt land at the boundary with Wilmslow.

Dave and Dee Carey have leafleted 700 homes to alert residents to a proposal put forward to Cheshire East Council to build houses off Beech Road – on land that straddles the border between the two areas. The council is to consider allowing 250 homes on the site as part of the local plan.

Owners of the land, Val Sims and brothers Alan and Dudley Wain, say they would build up to 250 homes on the land. They also want to build a 100-acre country park called The Meadows on a neighbouring piece of the same stretch of green belt.

But Mr and Mrs Carey, who have lived nearby at The Circuit, Alderley Edge, for 25 years, fear that so many new homes would put too much pressure on surrounding roads and community services such as doctors surgeries.

Dave, 58, a director of community interest company Creating Sustainable Organisations, said: “The development would join up Wilmslow and Alderley Edge and the village would lose its identity.

“We bought houses here because of the green fields and myself and Dee enjoy walking on the land, it has a variety of wildlife.

“Not one person I’ve spoken to has been in favour of the plan. The houses would be packed in like sardines.

“The roads are already chaos and the infrastructure will not cope. It’s green belt and should be protected.

“A lot of people are very upset and we will take this as far as we can.”

Cheshire East Council consulted on the proposal as part of a list of 'additional sites' brought forward by developers during the draft Local Plan consultation earlier this year.

Councillor Mary Maczkowiak, of Alderley Edge Parish Council, who lives on Crescent Road and is also objecting to the plans, said: “I was anxious that this was slipping through.

“Alderley Edge should not be merged with Wilmslow. Brownfield should be developed first.

“We need to realise the impact of 500 extra cars. People are angry and we're getting an action group ready to fight this.”

Campaign group Residents of Wilmslow (RoW) - which objected to new homes at another additional site at Rotherwood Road in Wilmslow - has also raised its objection to the Beech Road plan.

Manuel Golding, from RoW, said the consultation did not make it clear that some of the site was in Wilmslow.

He said: “It's important that residents who support the green belt vote no to development on Beech Road and the green belt element of the Rotherwood Road site.”

Alderley Edge Parish Council is also objecting to the plans on the grounds that it is a strain on infrastructure, that the site is in the green belt and helps prevent Alderley Edge and Wilmslow from merging.

Val Sims said: “At least 30 per cent of the development of up to 250 homes would be affordable housing to meet the needs of local people.

“A strong boundary would be created to the north with land that would remain in the green belt.

“The park would be an appropriate green belt use and maintain a clear, defensible boundary between Alderley Edge and Wilmslow.”