The starting pistol has fired and developers are racing for the finish line, preparing to concrete over our green and pleasant East Sussex countryside.

That is the stark warning this week from angry campaigners after Wealden District Council gave the official go-ahead to 1,000 homes on the edge of Uckfield.

And with sizeable developments green-lighted for Crowborough and Wadhurst, members of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) have accused developers and Wealden District Council of picking off soft targets sandwiched between the protected Ashdown Forest and the South Downs National Park. CPRS Sussex trustee Stephen Hardy said he feared East Sussex, without a greenbelt, was under particular threat with developers.

"The starting pistol has fired," he said. "We are seeing developers lining up. At the same planning meeting where the go-ahead was given to Uckfield, we had another developer being given permission for 35 new homes in tiny Wadhurst. I would say they are already over the finishing line. My view is the community cannot sustain 1,000 new homes - I do not know anywhere else in East Sussex like this.

It is opening the floodgates to developers. It is too late for Uckfield now – the only thing we can do now is reduce the number and be extremely vigilant and make sure they are not coming back and asking for more. Planners have a difficult job meeting housing targets set by the Government, because in places like Rother and Wealden large areas are protected – but that then puts even more pressure on areas without protection."

Crowborough town councillor, David Larkin said areas to the east of Uckfield faced a particular threat from development and claimed the decision by a planning inspector to throw out the district's planning framework meant more turmoil.

"The strategy is in disarray at the moment," he said. "It is not a free-for-all – there is still a core strategy which indicates where the developments should go – but it adds to the pressure. Yes – there is a threat. And plonking 1,000 homes in one go is going to look horrendous. With 1,000 homes you do not have countryside any more. We do need house-building – but not in one big lump in the wrong place."

A Wealden District Council spokesman said: "Although some areas have more protection by legislation than others, it is down to the development plan to allocate the most suitable areas which takes into account a number of factors."