A developer has submitted new plans to build hundreds of homes on protected countryside, a year after an appeal was thrown out by the High Court.
Jelson Homes is seeking planning permission from North West Leicestershire District Council for 240 houses on farmland off Hall Lane, in Whitwick.
It means the fight is back on for campaigners battling to save the area, which is protected by the council as "green wedge" land, from development.
Last October, they were celebrating after an appeal by Jelson and William Davis Homes was rejected by a High Court judge.
The developers had appealed against the district planning authority's refusal of plans for 1,500 homes on the site, which separates the villages of Whitwick, Thringstone and Swannington from Coalville.
Sue Colledge, of Whitwick Action Group, set up by residents to fight the original plans, said: "We'd hoped the High Court ruling would draw a line under this, but we had a sneaky feeling they'd come back.
"Our position hasn't changed. The land is protected as green wedge.
"If they allow it's development then our communities will be overwhelmed."
She added: "The previous case went all the way, and we're prepared to do so again.
"Jelson has a business to run but there are better places to build houses than this.
"But when the planning department, planning inspector, secretary of state and a High Court judge all said 'no' when are they going to get the message."
Whitwick Councillor Tony Gillard said: "I'm disappointed with the developer.
"Local opinion remains the same and everyone else has said flat no, including one of the highest courts in the land.
"What are they trying to achieve? It just baffles me!"
The renewed threat to the 'green wedge' comes as the council is having to formulate a new development framework to identify land for 10,000 new homes by 2031.
It follows a decision to withdraw its original blueprint, last October, after a planning inspector said it was "unsound".
As reported by the Mercury, last month, Persimmon Homes has also put in plans to build 250 homes on a nearby site off Broom Leys, on the edge of Coalville.
The developer had withdrawn an appeal in 2011, lodged after the district council failed to consider similar plans for 300 homes within the statutory 13-week period.
Andrew Bridgen MP has also hit out at Jelson, and Persimmon.
He said: "I am surprised that these house builders are once again attempting to develop this land given the strength of public feeling against moves to build on the green wedge.
"It should be retained as it is."
Terry McGreal, land and planning director Jelson Homes, said: "
"A number of local people have made it clear that they are opposed to there being any development in the green wedge.
"They have a right to express their views and that these will have to be taken into account by the district council when it determines our planning application."
He added: "The council will, though, also have to have regard to the fact that the development that we are proposing is significantly smaller in scale to that previously considered.
"It will have only a very modest impact on the green wedge and will deliver a range of much needed, high quality new homes in a location that is highly sustainable."
"The development will also generate jobs and help generate the economic growth that house builders in particular are being tasked with delivering."
