MINISTERS are today urged to halt a “planning free- for-all” set to hit the North East as a result of council planning failures.

Campaigners have called for a 12-month extension to the time needed for councils to have their local plans in place as the UK prepares for the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework later this month.

Any council which does not have its plan ready by March 28 will have to accept pro-developer Government rules when deciding planning applications.

In the North East, only South Tyneside is prepared for the changes, meaning green belt and rural land in Ponteland, Hexham, the edge of Newcastle and elsewhere will come under threat of thousands of new homes.

Both the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the National Trust, responsible for the likes of Cragside house and Seaton Delaval Hall, have called on the Government to give councils more time.

They warn that, at present, those councils which have failed to get plans passed setting out what can be built and where will be subject to a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” in the Government’s planning policy.

Nic Best, regional policy officer for the CPRE, said the Government planning policy did not have enough protection for local green belts and would see too much development if the changes are rushed into.

“The national versus local policy still needs to be resolved,” he said. “If the Gov- ernment is really committed to supporting people locally it will allow this delay.”

The campaign was backed by North East groups, including those who are fighting plans for more than 20,000 new homes set to be built in Newcastle.

John Urquhart, who fought plans to build on land next to Gosforth Park Nature Reserve, said the lack of a local plan in Newcastle could be disastrous.

He said: “We are very concerned that, come March 28, we and others will see a wave of predatory planning applications put in by property developers wanting to target our green belt.

“It is important we have every chance to fight this because we are not just trying to protect our future but that of our children as well, as once you lose these green spaces you lose them forever, and then you no longer have that much-needed and easy to reach bit of countryside on the edge of the city.”

In Ponteland, hundreds of people have united against proposals to build several houses at Birney Hill Farm, next to Darras Hall, while the Banks Group is looking to build 500 on land east of Ponteland.

Alma Dunigan, who chairs the green belt group, said: “We very much agree with this. Northumberland went through a process of merging six district councils into one unitary authority a few years back and the process of turning all those plans into one has not been easy.

“Without this delay we will face a free-for-all in which opportunistic developers identify areas that are free from conurbation at the moment and seek to covert these into new dwellings.

“We face a situation in which housing stretches from the Tyne Bridge right up to Ponteland and beyond.”

The Gosforth group is hosting a development forum at St Nicholas Church in Gosforth on the afternoon of March 23 for all those wishing to learn more.

The Government has insisted that most councils are ready for the changes. Planning minister Nick Boles added: “Up-to- date Local Plans provide certainty to both local residents and local firms, and we have offered councils a range of practical assistance to help them to get up to speed.

“There are strong protections in place for the green belt, open countryside and areas of outstanding natural beauty when considering planning applications against the planning framework as a whole.”

However, the National Trust has warned that more time must be given to councils before they implement planning reforms or there will be “warfare” in communities.

With half of English local authorities set to miss the deadline, the trust is urging the Government to give town halls another a year to implement them or risk inappropriate construction schemes which prompt conflict in communities.

Sir Simon Jenkins, chairman of the trust, also warned of an unprecedented number of threats to the countryside, particularly the proliferation of wind farms, as well as the proposed route of the HS2 high-speed rail line and the prospect of “fracking” for shale gas.

Local authorities have been given a year up to the end of March 2013 to adopt local plans spelling out where development can take place in their area.

Failing to do so would allow unprotected parts of the countryside to be built on as and when landowners chose, Sir Simon warned, saying: “You start trying to build houses where people don’t want them ... and local Britain will be a warfare area.”