Leader of Barking and Dagenham council’s opposition has joined the campaign to save Crowlands Golf Course from redevelopment.
The development plans includes 1,300 new homes, a range of facilities such as a retail unit, community centre, multi-use games area and padel courts and enhancement work to Wantz Boating Lake.
Eastbrook and Rush Green Reform councillor Ben Sauter warned that the redevelopment will cause wholesale urbanisation of protected Green Belt land and permanently alter the character of the area.
He said: “The proposed development would remove over 22 hectares of protected open land and physically infill the gap between Barking and Dagenham and Havering, directly undermining the core purpose of the Green Belt.
“Once the Green Belt is gone, it’s gone forever, we cannot keep chipping away at it every time a developer assembles a large site.”
Although the idea for redevelopment was revealed in October 2025, the planning application was submitted to Barking and Dagenham and Havering last month.
The developer behind the proposal is Homes4Life (H4Life) led by director Marc Pennick.
Barking and Dagenham council have said that they are offering the public an opportunity to comment on the proposal.
A spokesperson for the council said: “The statutory consultation process is currently underway; this gives residents and other stakeholders an opportunity to comment.
“Comments received will be taken into consideration as part of the planning assessment that is put before members of each borough’s planning committee.”
Suter said he has lodged a formal objection raising concerns about the scale and density of the scheme, which includes high-rise apartment blocks on the Barking and Dagenham side of the site.
He said: “This is a strikingly intensive use of what is currently open, green land.
“It is also a mass overdevelopment.”
Overcrowding was another problem Suter raised.
He said: “Residents already struggle to access GP appointments and Queen’s Hospital is under immense pressure.
“Dropping a new community of several thousand people into a low-PTAL area is simply unsustainable.”
Crowlands is currently on land that is designated as green belt; however, the developers believe that it should be classified as a grey belt due to the golf course’s financial difficulties.
Suter criticised this belief calling the argument “not a recognised planning category” and warning it would set “a dangerous precedent for London”.
He is urging the Council’s Planning Committee to reject the application because he believes that the borough’s should prioritise brownfield regeneration and protect strategic open land.
He said: “I am dead against the planning terms.
“It erodes the core legal purpose of the Green Belt, destroys a vital open buffer, overloads already stretched infrastructure, and sets a dangerous precedent for further Green Belt loss.”
Suter was elected to represent Eastbrook and Rush Green following the local elections on May 7.
Rush Green and Crowlands conservative councillor Viddy Persaud is also part of the campaign.
She said that many residents in both boroughs disapprove with the redevelopment and that the campaigns petition has got over 500 signatures.
She wants the petition to draw attention to the importance of the golf course for community wellbeing, recreation, wildlife and environmental benefits.
She added: “There’s already so much infrastructure in the boroughs, people need a place to exercise and a place with clean air.”
Persaud has been a councillor in Romford for eight years and she said that she works hard to fight for the interests of the residents of Rush Green and Crowlands.
Crowlands golf course is a nine-hole USGA-standard championship course; however, the land was sold to the council by its owners due to membership and maintenance costs.
The course is best known for its unique “aqua” driving range and has been operating for over three decades.
Featured Image of Ben Suter (Image Credit: Ben Suter)
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