PROTESTERS lined the A44 yesterday to campaign against proposals for 4,400 homes north of Oxford.

Villagers from Yarnton and Begbroke held placards and banners to catch the attention of motorists heading to Countryfile Live.

Campaign leader Giles Lewis said: "We felt that people who go to the event like the countryside and would be supportive of our campaign to protect it.

"I hope they got our message that the two villages would be decimated by this development."

Protest organisers had told the Oxford Mail the group would be 'repeatedly' pressing the pedestrian crossings but this did not happen.

Mr Lewis said this was never the plan and the intentions were not made under the auspices of the Begbroke and Yarnton Green Belt campaign.

But he added it showed there was an anger among villagers.

The campaigners were forced to remove a picture of its banner from Twitter after a user discovered it was in fact a picture of the village of Coberley near Cheltenham.

Others saw the funny side tweeting pictures of the countryside on the Windows PC background with feigned shock at housing plans.