Residents have given their backing to plans to create a new heritage park on an area of woodland earmarked for housing.

Dozens of people attended a public meeting at the United Reformed Church, in Kings Road, to find out more details about campaign group Halstead 21st Century’s plans for an area of land to the east of High Street.

The site, which has been abandoned for more than 50 years, has been earmarked for housing, but campaigners are keen to create a new green space as an alternative to development.

The proposed new heritage park would include creating a wildlife area, children’s play facilities and restoring 16 air raid shelters sited on the land.

During the meeting where the plans were unveiled, residents were given several presentations before being invited to have their say on the plans.

Halstead 21st Century’s Helen Wolf, who led some of the presentations, said she was encouraged by the support for the group’s vision.

“The presentations went really well,” she said.

“We had a number of people leave comments at the end and a lot of them were generally very positive. People have been very supportive and have helped provide constructive feedback which is important for us.

“Security and safety on the site is something we take seriously and was one issue people were quite concerned about. We are having conversations about how the site can be made secure.

“We see this as a chance to create a green space close to the High Street and one which is very accessible for pedestrians.

“What we would envisage is having community-based projects on the site and having as many people as possible help deliver the park.

“We hope to hold more meetings in the future and are always keen to hear what people think.”

Though Halstead 21st Century has campaigned to keep the land east of High Street free from development, it does accept some new homes are likely to be built there in the future.

However, Ms Wolf says the group is hopeful that its vision for a heritage park could also be delivered alongside any new development.

She added: “There are different levels of our vision which could come into play. It would be wonderful if it could happen in its entirety but we have different options available to us if houses are built.

“We expect a planning application for the site to be submitted soon but if you look at it, there is 50 years of failed planning history on the land because of the constraints to developers so it won’t be easy.”