GREEN belt land in Wimborne, Corfe Mullen and West Parley is being earmarked for thousands of new homes.

And urban areas look set to become even more congested as planning chiefs look at packing more properties into towns in a bid to meet housing quotas.

The plans are only in discussion stages. But significant areas are under threat of urban expansion as council chiefs try to establish how to meet recommendations being made by the South West Regional Assembly.

If they get their way, by 2026 we will have an extra 5,200 homes in East Dorset - that's around 260 per year for the next 20 years. Almost half will be in the green belt.

The impact will be vast. We will need bigger schools or new schools, extra doctors' surgeries, shops and improvements to the road network. And green areas that have previously been protected will shrink.

In Wimborne, planners are considering placing the housing on land between Julian's Bridge and Victoria Road. Pardy's Hill is the most likely area in Corfe Mullen and at Parley Cross the available land is restricted by floodplain and airport noise.

Anxiety is growing locally with homeowners expressing fears that development will have an impact on property values and conservationists mourning the erosion of open spaces.

William Wallace, head of policy at East Dorset District Council, said: "There aren't enough schools.

"We'll have to look at local development, expanding schools, more doctors' surgeries, roads, public transport routes - all sorts of things.

"Any development will still have to be fairly near existing facilities. The land at Pardy's Hill is close to the Co-op village hall, library, church, playing fields, a bus route and the middle school, whereas other areas nearby are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

"Bournemouth Airport is going to be a major employment site - with 80 hectares of industrial land up for development. Parley Cross is very well located for shops and for people travelling to the airport to work in the future.

"Development in greenfield sites is the only way to get significant supply of affordable housing for local people. It will certainly have an impact. We are going to lose green belt. We are going to lose some bits of important environment."

But there is a concern that the appreciation of land value, brought about by approving land for development, would generate money for the Treasury to distribute throughout the whole country rather than just in East Dorset, where improvements to the infrastructure would be needed.

Mr Wallace added: "A lot of the homes will come about through infilling and redevelopment within existing urban areas.

"At least half will be done in that way. That's already happening in areas such as Ferndown."

Houses will be divided into flats and some gardens on larger plots sold off to developers for homes.

The South West Regional Assembly's thoughts are only as specific as which towns should be further developed.

Local strategic planning authorities have been highlighting constraints in those areas due to issues such as proximity to the floodplain to try and come up with possible areas for development by a process of elimination.

It is hoped that any housing would remain affordable even after it is sold on by restricting tenure to shared equity schemes with housing associations.

Any development on green belt land would retain a large area of open space for recreation in a bid to encourage locals away from conservation areas and heathland, which have been damaged by overuse.