CAMPAIGNERS fear plans to widen a country lane in Hadleigh to take traffic to and from the 2012 Olympic mountain bike race site could open the door to unwanted extra housing.

Essex County Council is considering widening Chapel Lane and nearby Castle Lane to improve access to the site.

The races will be at the Salvation Army’s farm and the adjoining council-owned Hadleigh Castle Country Park.

More than 70 residents turned out in Chapel Lane to protest against the proposals, which they fear will ruin the quiet road and make it harder to stop green belt land at the end of the lane being developed for homes.

Campaign leader Nigel Southwood, 53, said: “The road doesn’t need to be widened. The lorries which will use it to get to the Olympic site are no larger than those which already use it.

“It will be expensive, completely unnecessary and may lead to new housing on green belt land.”

In 2006, the Salvation Army broached the idea of building homes on 2.5 acres of its land at Sayers Farm, which is off Chapel Lane with Castle Point Council.

Public outcry, led by the then MP, Bob Spink, persuaded the council to oppose the proposal, citing poor access to the site via Chapel Lane as a major stumbling block.

Mr Southwood, who lives in Chapel Lane, fears once the Olympics were over the Salvation Army might resurrect the proposals.

He has even offered to buy Sayers Farm to stop it being developed.

He added: “They won’t sell it to me. When the Olympics is finished, the land will be worth between ten and 100 times what it is now.

“The Salvation Army does some great work, but its property arm is like any other organisation. It is looking to maximise the return on its investments.”

Essex County Council has now agreed not to make a decision on the road-widening until a trial mountain bike event next summer has given a better idea how existing roads might cope.

Keith Manners, the Salvation Army’s territorial property director, said: “We wish to once again re-state we have no plans to sell land for large-scale development along the lines of some of the rumours which occasionally circulate.

“We have, from time to time, offered small parcels of land, but any development on any site is always subject to planning regulations, especially on a site as sensitive as at Hadleigh.”