Plans to earmark Green Belt land for up to 3,000 homes will be discussed at a public meeting.

Lightwood Community Group is organising the meeting on Stoke-on-Trent City Council's latest local plan proposals at Florence Sports and Social Club, at 7pm on Wednesday, 22 July.

The latest draft version of the plan, which will guide all development in the city up to 2040, retains a controversial site allocation of 3,000 homes on Green Belt land at Lightwood.

Site BL1, between Cocknage Road, Lightwood Road and Woodpark Lane, is now the single largest housing allocation in the plan.

The community group describes it as the equivalent of 'building another Blythe Bridge between our communities'.

Residents have previously raised concerns over the loss of Green Belt land, drainage issues and the impact on local roads, as well as the presence of Etruria marl on the site.

The council will be holding a further round of consultation on the local plan over the summer.

Meanwhile, Stoke-on-Trent South MP Allison Gardner has called for a masterplan to be drawn up for the Lightwood site to ensure any development happens in a co-ordinated way and residents' concerns are addressed.

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The city council is taking this approach with land it owns in Packmoor, which has been allocated 800 homes in the draft plan – but there remains widespread opposition to development among local residents.

Ms Gardner raised the issue in the House of Commons on Thursday, after previously writing to council leader Jane Ashworth on the subject.

She said: "Lightwood in my constituency is earmarked in the emerging local plan for a whopping 3,000 new homes. Not only would a development of that size be simply too much for the area, but no masterplan has been brought forward to guide development.

"Without a proper masterplan, there is a risk of piecemeal development, and my constituents cannot be reassured that there will be the transport, schools, healthcare, protected green spaces and updated water infrastructure that their communities need."

The local plan, which is due to be submitted for examination before the end of the year, aims to show how 19,000 homes will be built in Stoke-on-Trent over the plan period.