AN ENVIRONMENTAL protection group is urging people across Kent to attend a special meeting if they are concerned about the Government’s plan to build half a million new homes in the South East.

The Kent branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England will outline the "risk" to the region from the planned 20-year house building programme at a meeting in Maidstone on Wednesday, March 30.

Director Dr Hilary Newport said: "Ignore this threat and people could suffer the consequences. I urge anyone who cares about the danger to our area to turn-up."

The meeting, to be held at the Corn Exchange, Market Buildings, Maidstone, at 7.15pm, will be addressed by Paul Bevan, chief executive of the South East Kent Regional Assembly, which is drawing-up the plan, Cllr Richard King, Kent County Council cabinet member for transport, and the environment, and Dr Newport.

More than 500,000 new homes are planned for the South East, 120,000 of them earmarked for Kent.

"It will have a fantastic impact over the next 20 years," said Dr Newport. "Unless we get the plan right now, the beauty of our natural landscape could be irreparably damaged by ill-considered development. It must be scrutinised thoroughly before anything is allowed to go ahead."