Protect the Green Belt
Scrutinise proposals affecting Green Belt fields around Chesham and challenge them where they threaten our countryside.
Chesham · Buckinghamshire
Brown Not Green
Brown Not Green Chesham is a community-led, not-for-profit campaign protecting Green Belt land around our town — and championing brownfield sites for the housing our community needs.
10+
Years campaigning
15
Brownfield sites identified
1
Community · one voice
0
Green Belt lost so far
About BNG
A community protecting the countryside on Chesham's doorstep.
Brown Not Green Chesham Ltd (BNG) is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, created by the community in 2015 to protect Green Belt land around Chesham, Bucks.
For over a decade we've campaigned to keep the fields, hedgerows and footpaths that ring our town out of the development pipeline — arguing, instead, for the many brownfield sites that could deliver the homes the district genuinely needs.
As Buckinghamshire's emerging local plan takes shape, that work matters more than ever.
What we do
One shared green horizon.
Champion brownfield first
Identify the 15+ brownfield sites already available across the district that should be developed before a single field is lost.
Public rights of way
Defend gate owners' prescriptive rights and the ancient footpaths that give the community access to the land around it.
CURRENT ISSUES FOR PUBLIC ACTION
Chesham's Green Belt is being redrawn as “Grey Belt”.
The Council's inclusion of many Green Belt sites around Chesham — some provisionally redesignated as “Grey Belt” — has drawn serious public concern. Meanwhile, brownfield sites previously identified by Chesham Renaissance and by BNG remain overlooked.
- Fields NE of the town near Lye Green defended for a decade
- 15 brownfield sites previously identified — many still ignored
- New Buckinghamshire local plan raises the stakes
- Prescriptive rights of way under quiet pressure
Latest
All updates →From the campaign
Local Plan·RECENT - JULY 2026
PUBLIC SUPPORT IS NOW VITAL
This Plan is not safe yet. Speculative property developers will be making representations to discredit this Plan so that their schemes (invariably on Green Belt) will be adopted instead. There are a few points of detail we need to clarify or have the Council correct but BNG are broadly supportive of this new Plan and are working with the other local community groups including The Chesham Society, the Chiltern Society & Chesham Renaissance CIC to make helpful representations as a “critical friend” to the Council to ensure that obvious errors are corrected and that this new Local Plan passes Examination in Public and is adopted. YOU CAN HELP TOO. Please visit the Local Planning Updates on this website to see how you can submit your support for this Local Plan which inevitably will otherwise be challenged by local developers.
Click here to read the full story
Community·Ongoing
LOCAL PLAN PUBLISHED FOR REG 19 PUBLIC CONSULTATION
On 23 July 2026, Buckinghamshire Council announced that they have reached the Regulation 19 (Publication) stage of plan preparation and are inviting representations on the Proposed Submission draft Local Plan for Buckinghamshire to 2045. This is the final statutory consultation stage before the Plan is submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination by the Planning Inspectorate.
Click here to read the full storyHistory·Archive
Ten years of Brown Not Green: how we got here
Get involved
A campaign only works when Chesham shows up.
Donate
Legal, planning and professional advice costs money. Every contribution keeps the campaign resourced.
Support the campaignSign our Petition
Add your name to the petition against plans to build homes on Green Belt at Lye Green, near Chesham.
Sign the petitionFollow us on Social Media
Stay up to date with the latest news, campaign updates and calls to action on our Facebook page.
Follow us on FacebookContact
Stand with Chesham. Keep the Green Belt green.
Send us a message, share a concern about a site near you, or ask how to donate to the campaign. We'd love to hear from you.