Campaigners fighting to protect the Norfolk countryside have urged people to lobby against thousands more homes being earmarked for the county.

The Greater Norwich Development Partnership - made up of councillors and officers from Norwich City Council, Broadland District Council, South Norfolk Council, Norfolk County Council and the Broads Authority - said last month that it needed to find locations for 8,900 homes.

That is on top of nearly 40,000 homes already earmarked over the next 20 years.

But the Norfolk branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which recently launched its Vision for Norfolk campaign to prevent over-development in the countryside, said communities should join forces to make clear they do not want 'unnecessary' extra homes.

David Hook, CPRE trustee and chairman of its planning committee, said: 'While CPRE Norfolk supports the provision of the right kind of housing in the right locations, particularly affordable housing, we consider the housing targets and site allocations in the current local plan for Norwich, South Norfolk and Broadland are more than sufficient to cover the level of development that will occur up to 2036.

'Therefore we are campaigning against proposed additional large housing allocations being added in to the new local plan, because they are unnecessary and would have a severe negative impact on the countryside.'

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Andrew Proctor, chairman of the Greater Norwich Growth Board, said: 'What we are now looking at is saying 'this is what the objectively assessed need is for the future', therefore we need to make sure people understand why it needs to be done and for it to be consulted on.

'There's extensive consultation starting in October this year on seven different options of future patterns of growth in the area.'

But there is simmering conflict between councils on where the homes should be built.

Norwich City Council leader Alan Waters believes they should be focused near existing infrastructure around Norwich, but South Norfolk Council's leader John Fuller has pressed for them to be dispersed along the A11 corridor towards Cambridge.

• CPRE Norfolk will hold a roadshow about its campaign at the United Reformed Church in Princes Street, Norwich, from 7.15pm tomorrow.