They are fighting plans to build hundreds of new homes on green spaces in the town.

The strength of feeling was demonstrated last week when more than 160 people crammed into a public meeting to oppose the plans – which campaigners say will change the face of Emsworth forever.

Havant Borough Council has been told by the government it must build 6,000 new homes over the next 20 years to meet housing demands.

Residents fears hundreds of homes to be built on green spaces in Havant borough could be in Emsworth.

Among the possible sites for development are 280 homes in the Emsworth Gap, 227 homes to the west and east of Horndean Road and 123 dwellings earmarked for Horse Field, south of the A259 in Emsworth.

Now a protest group, called Emsworth Fights Back, has been set up.

A public consultation on the proposals finishes in less than two weeks – and campaigners are urging residents to write to the council to oppose the plans.

Penny Salter, of Birch Tree Drive, Emsworth, said: 'This will destroy Emsworth completely if it goes through.

'There is not the infrastructure and the roads won't be able to cope with it.

'It will just turn Emsworth into a housing estate.'

The main concern for residents is the Emsworth Gap –17 acres of fields that separate Westbourne and the town – where 250 homes could be built.

The green space is home to tawny owls, buzzards, and foxes.

Residents say it would mean the death of Westbourne as a village in its own right.

Emsworth councillor Brendan Gibb-Gray said: 'To have the rate of housing building we are talking about, with no guarantees for the majority of those people, is a recipe for disaster.'