Campaigners opposed to greenbelt development are calling for Tynwald to defer a decision on the Area Plan for the East until after the 2021 census.

Don Lindsay, a former general manager of Isle of Man Bank and past president of the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce, has written to all MHKs and MLCs on behalf of a ’significant number of residents from Braddan and Douglas’.

The Area Plan for the East is due to go Tynwald for approval later this month.

It earmarks a number of greenfield sites for future housing, including 300 homes off Braddan Road.

Mr Lindsay says the draft area plan was ’hopelessly flawed’ and the final document for Tynwald approval ’remains unsound in a number of material ways’.

He urged Tynwald members: ’In 2021 there will be the next census.

’Given the closeness of this exercise, would it not make sense to delay further consideration of the plan until the census figures are known and can be safely factored into the housing requirements?’

The plan says the island needs up to 5,100 extra homes by the year 2026 - of which 2,440 should be in the east.

But the 2016 census showed that the island’s population had fallen and despite since climbing back, it has still not reached 2011 levels.

Mr Lindsay said the forecast for future housing needs had been scaled back but the original estimates were retained with significant tracts of greenfield land now to be designated as strategic reserve sites.

He said this created ’needless uncertainty and anguish for many households’.

Campaigners say there should be an in-depth review of the road infrastructure in and around Douglas and of what extra services would be needed in areas earmarked for development.

Brownfield sites should be developed as a priority, they say. Covid has also had an impact in terms of job losses and the old-style head office set to become obsolete with the rise of homeworking.