A WALKER believes she may have found a new Banksy artwork that challenges the construction of new homes.

Georgeana Scobie said she was getting her exercise in Newhaven when she spotted the white board.

It was opposite a new housing development which is being constructed in The Fairway on the western edge of the town, off the A259.

The message reads: “Green fields are gone forever. These homes are not affordable.”

It shows a little girl holding the hand of a furry creature with a sad face, looking at a bulldozer belching out black smoke.

The stencil artwork also shows black smudges of tractor tracks and the stumps of felled trees.

It appears to question how many new developments actually include homes which are affordable for people in Sussex, while also raising concerns about the environment.

At the bottom of the board, which is visible to those on the A259, there is a yellow signature which appears to show it is by Banksy, the controversial guerilla graffiti artist.

But the signature may also say Bankzy and be a copycat artist in the area.

Ms Scobie said: “It highlights what I consider to be the most important issue facing Newhaven and Sussex in general at this time.

“There have already been a swathe of new houses built in the area over the last few years as well as plans to create more.

“While I understand the need for affordable housing, at what cost? These plans seem not to bear in mind the already over congested roads, a lack of infrastructure in the town and the rapidly shrinking green land around Newhaven."

It is not the first time the graffiti artist has made headlines in Sussex.

This month The Argus reported how properties in Pelham Place in St Leonards were selling at a higher value perhaps because of a Banksy stencil that appeared in 2010.

In October there was some outrage as a man appeared on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow appearing to have taken a piece of the artist's work from Brighton seafront.

Then there was a stencil of a boy in a diving costume that appeared on the seawall near Hove Lagoon in 2019.

Ms Scobie added: “I think this past year especially has illustrated just how much we local residents need these precious areas of green land around us.

“During lockdown, areas like the Newhaven cliffs up by Harbour Heights have been a haven for people like myself to get out of the house and spend a bit of time in nature without having to travel out of town.

“It is just beneficial for the mental health of local residents, these small areas of green land are vitally important to local wildlife, providing their last fragment of natural habitat, especially along the cliff areas.

“Maybe it’s time to take some action, get talking to the local council and do what we can before it’s too late.”