Campaigners expect to reveal massive opposition to building on protected countryside when they hold a public meeting in Kingswood.

More than 98 per cent of those who responded to a consultation exercise organised by the Save Our Green Spaces group are understood to have said they do not want to see South Gloucestershire's green belt swallowed up by new houses.

Instead they are calling for brownfield sites to be developed first in order to meet the demand for more homes.

Save Our Green Spaces (SOGS) was set up in response to fears that as many as 8,000 houses could be built east of Kingswood as part of Government moves for a major housebuilding programme.

It wants South Gloucestershire to provide land for nearly 33,000 homes by 2026.

South Gloucestershire Council has conceded 21,500 extra homes are needed for local people but says 33,000 is too many.

SOGS is just one of a number of groups in the Bristol area fighting the level of building proposed in the Regional Spatial Strategy in their own localities – from Dundry and Whitchurch to Long Ashton, Shortwood, Siston and Warmley.

Jacquie Stephens, chairwoman of SOGS, got involved when she discovered the threat posed to Warmley, where she lives, and Siston.

She and a neighbour rallied support and an action group was set up last summer to oppose moves to remove green belt status from hundreds of acres of land in Siston parish for the development of an urban expansion.

They said the land could be built over with high density town houses, losing the community that exists now, together with its wildlife and walking areas, and gaining more traffic, roads, pollution and concrete.

Jacquie, of Stanley Road, said: "SOGS is a non-political community-led group. We are not against new housing but we want brownfield sites to be developed first, empty homes used and for new houses to be built close to where people work so as not to damage the environment further.

"We want our Government to do exactly what they say they will do and listen to the views of local people.

"Our message is your greenbelt needs you – use it or lose it. Once gone it cannot be replaced and we are not going away "

The meeting will be held in Kingswood Civic Centre on Thursday, May 7, when guest speakers will include representatives from National Trust, Avon Wildlife Trust, the National Farmers Union and South Gloucestershire Council, as well as local MPs Roger Berry and Steve Webb.

A series of displays will also be set up but although Ben Bradshaw, the Minister for the South West, has been invited, he has so far not replied.

Doors open at 5.30pm and the meeting, to include a question and answer session, starts at 6.15pm.