Residents bearing banners and slogans met outside the Main Street shop to campaign against Co-operative Estates and English Partnerships’ plan to build an eco-town of up to 15,000 homes on acres of countryside they own between Great Glen and Stoughton.

Among the protesters through the day on Saturday were about 15 youngsters from the village, Harborough MP Edward Garnier, Leicestershire county councillor Dr Kevin Feltham, district councillor Grahame Spendlove-Mason and Great Glen parish councillors Bill Glasper and Andrew Duerden.

The protest was organised by Billesdon district councillor Steve Charlish, who said: “It was a great success. It was a good way to raise awareness – people need to wake up to how disastrous this eco-town would be.”

Mr Charlish also threatened future protests but did not elaborate further.

Phil Edwards, a spokesman for Co-operative Estates, pointed out that Glen’s Co-op shop is operated by Midlands Co-operative Society, which is “completely independent of Co-operative Group and entirely unconnected with proposals for the eco-town”.

l A map of the proposed eco-town – which may be called Pennbury – was also leaked this week. It was a map produced by White, Young, Green, who were commissioned to carry out a report for the Co-op.

It confirmed earlier reports that the town would be built on land between Great Glen and Stoughton with Stoughton Airfield at the hub.

It would be near to Stoughton in the north and west, and Little Stretton in the south and east. A possible train station would be to the south of Great Glen, according to the map, with park and ride sites mooted for between Glen and Oadby, and between Thurnby and Houghton.

Mr Edwards, for Co-operative Estates, said the map had been kept secret because the information was ‘commercially sensitive’.

He added: “The map is a hypothetical illustration of where the new community might sit within our estate and was included in our proposals for illustrative purposes only.”

l Dr Feltham, county councillor for Glen division, last week wrote in protest about the proposed eco-town to Hazel Blears, the Government’s minister for communities and local government, and to Yvette Copper, the housing minister.

l A public meeting to fight the proposals is taking place at Billesdon’s Coplow Centre on Friday, February 1, from 7.30pm.

Another protest rally is due to take place outside Houghon-on-the-Hill Co-op on Saturday, February 2.