Villagers will wrap more than a thousand acres of Sussex countryside in yellow ribbon in a symbolic move to “protect it” from developers.

They will trail a seven mile long ribbon around open countryside as part of an opposition campaign to proposals for a new 10,000 home town in Mid Sussex.

Opponents say the scale of the proposed new development is “unsustainable” although backers for the scheme say their plans are preferable to a series of add-on developments across the county.

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Mayfield Market Towns Ltd announced earlier this year plans for a 10,000 home new town between Sayers Common and Henfield.

The multi-million pound project would be home to 30,000 people and take up to 17 years to build.

Developers have now published three alternatives for how the project could look including one “compact settlement” between Henfield and Sayers Common, a “split” option based around Sayers Common or a series of dispersed villages.

The firm say they have nearly reached their target of controlling half of the 800 hectares of land required for the scheme and are “moving towards controlling enough land” to start development in 2017/18 as planned.

No planning applications have been submitted yet but developers have made representations to Mid Sussex and Horsham councils as the authorities develop their local plans for future development.

In July, company director Lord Matthew Taylor was criticised for his involvement with the firm while leading a national review on existing planning guidelines.

Anthony Watts Williams, of the action group Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl, said: “How could anyone build a town of some 10,000 homes in an area that has no infrastructure, no jobs, is prone to flooding and is miles away from a railway station?

“The proposal is not supported by district and parish councils, MPs, and all the people we have spoken to who live and work in this area.

“We know that this scheme is completely unsustainable and therefore contrary to Governments National Planning Policy, but who know what can happen when this proposal is being funded and pushed forward by such a powerful group.”

A Mayfields Market Towns spokeswoman said: “We are of course aware that there are concerns about development, both to our proposals and the many planned extensions to existing villages and towns.

“However most people recognise that new homes have to go somewhere, our case is that a well-planned new community is preferable for delivering homes than constantly placing pressure on existing communities without them seeing any real benefits.

“We will be carrying out a very extensive public consultation on our plans before they are drawn up in full.”

For more details or to have your say on the proposals visit www.mayfieldtowns.co.uk.