More than 1,300 people are backing a campaign to save trees said to threatened by plans for 4000 homes in Grantham.

The Grantham-based national organisation, the Woodland Trust, says plans for new development at the Grantham Barracks could see almost 60 hectares of new woodland lost.

The move follows Homes England and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation submitting details to South Kesteven District Council of their ambitions in April, as previously reported by Nub News.

In an appeal on their website, they said: "Between 2012 and 2013, the Trust, its staff, the armed forces and the local community planted 73 ha of native woodland at the Prince William of Gloucester Barracks in Grantham.

"This site was planted as a Diamond Jubilee Wood in celebration of 60 years of service by Her Majesty the Queen.

"The site is currently overseen by the Ministry of Defence, with the Government's house-building agency, Homes England, designing plans for development on the site for a minimum of 3,500 to 4,000 houses.

"We first saw plans in 2016 that indicated a loss of around 60% of the woodland and raised concerns at the time.

The trust continued: "We are deeply frustrated to see that Homes England's revised plans have got worse, not better, in terms of woodland impact. The most recent masterplan indicates that 80% ofthe woodland on site wouldbe lost. Thisequates to just under 60 ha or 67,000 trees.

"Having planted this woodland area with the local community and Trust staff, we consider that it is a travesty that we are now facing the prospect of most of these trees being cut down less than a decade after they were planted."

The Woodland Trust is calling on Homes England to ensure the following as much woodland and trees be preserved, with a revised masterplan for the site having a 'retention first' approach.

Trees should also be planted elsewhere to help make up for what may be lost.

The appeal added: "At a time when our wildlife is under much pressure and we urgently need to tackle climate change, Government agencies should not be designing new development that would result in such significant loss of woodland, whether new or old."

Homes England is running a consultation on development at the Barracks until June 25 and to date, more than 1,300 have taken part.

People can take part using this link.

Further details on the scheme and the consultation can also be found here.