HUNDREDS of people have lent their support to the controversial Wicken Fen Vision by signing a new petition. Only a month after the Wicken Fen Vision petition was launched online, more than 700 people have shown their support for the campaign by adding

HUNDREDS of people have lent their support to the controversial Wicken Fen Vision by signing a new petition.

Only a month after the 'Wicken Fen Vision' petition was launched online, more than 700 people have shown their support for the campaign by adding their names to the rapidly growing list.

The petition was set up by Ely resident Ben Gibbs, to help garner support for the multi-million pound project, which has increasingly divided public opinion in recent months.

The Vision is the brainchild of the National Trust, which is hoping to convert 5000 hectares of farmland between Wicken and Cambridge into a sprawling wildlife reserve within 100 years.

Campaigners fighting the plans however, believe that the Vision will turn thousands of acres of prime farming land into unmanageable wetland and the group have almost 400 names on a petition asking the Government to put a stop to the scheme.

Upware resident Geoffrey Woollard, who is leading the 'Save our Fens' campaign, said: "The National Trust has mobilised its people in support of the so-called 'Wicken Vision,' and I see that quite a few of what I call the usual suspects have signed up to Mr Gibbs' petition.

"Mr Gibbs is saying that the National Trust consultations have indicated a high level of public support for the scheme, as have the number of people who have signed up for the petition.'

"I respectfully suggest that the so-called consultations by the Trust were nothing more than an indoctrination exercise costing many thousands of pounds and much glossy paper and they did not succeed in convincing the people who are really threatened by this silly �100 million-plus scheme."

Mr Gibbs however, dismissed concerns about threats to the nation's farmland, saying in the petition: "We do not believe that the Vision in any way threatens the UK's food security as some opponents have stated. Rather, we feel that the country as a whole will benefit greatly from it.