One of the developers behind plans for a country park as part of an 800-home development in Stevenage has promised to "protect the unbreakable legacy" of the famous author associated with the land.

Forster Country lies within the St Nicholas Conservation Area and includes author EM Forster's childhood home Rooks Nest House, Grade I-listed St Nicholas Church and Grade II-listed The Bury.

Developers are building 800 homes, a primary school, shops, commercial space, a public plaza and a country park in Forster Country, off North Road.

Hundreds of people, including actress Emma Thompson and campaign group Friends of Forster Country, have objected to the plans, with concerns including urban coalescence, loss of heritage and the development being unsustainable.

At a meeting tomorrow, Stevenage Borough Council's Planning and Development Committee are set to discuss access, layout and landscaping of the 93-acre country park.

Gavin Jones, regional operations director for Miller Homes South Midlands, said: "Miller Homes is helping to protect the unbreakable legacy of EM Forster through not only the naming of our development [Forster Park], but also his work being a huge influence for the planned country park to surround the development, which is going to bring back many memories for Stevenage residents of how Forster himself would have been inspired by the local landscape."

However, Chris Naylor, spokesperson for the Friends of Forster Country says the country park plan "does not respect heritage recommendations or environmental and biodiversity advice", with the proposal including a car park, toilet block, storage facility and electricity grounding station.

"It also plans to create a mound out of 25,000 cubic meters of landfill on one meadow, and build 2.5km of 3.5metre-wide roads around and through the fields, placing speed humps, bollards, litter bins and seating around the site," he added.

The onsite sales centres for both Miller Homes and Bellway are now open, with prices of the new homes ranging from £375,000 to £585,000.

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Mr Jones said: "Work has been progressing week-by-week at Forster Park.

"We have been able to release our first homes for sale at the development, and our on-site sales team will now be able to support our prospective customers by showing them our plans for the site.

"This includes the level of detail which goes into all our homes, as well as design features and sustainable approaches to our work, such as EV charging points to all properties and solar panels to many of the roofs of the homes we are building in Stevenage."

The first homes are expected to be ready for occupation in Spring 2024.

For more information, visit millerhomes.co.uk/new-homes/south-east/forster-park-stevenage.aspx and bellway.co.uk/new-homes/north-london/forster-park.