Plans to overhaul the planning system have been described as "disastrous" by environmental groups.

Campaigners are warning that government plans to overhaul the planning system could result in an England "with Tarmac over everything".

The government set out changes to the planning system in the wake of the marathon consideration of Heathrow's Terminal Five and amid concern from business leaders that international competitiveness was being undermined by delays to infrastructure improvements.

But the Council for the Protection of Rural England, Friends of the Earth and Transport 2000 are urging supporters to demand a government rethink on the proposals.

The campaigners fear that the reforms could lead to local people being denied a say on major developments such as new airports or motorways.

"These proposals represent a further weakening of local democracy, they would erode public trust in the planning system," said CPRE director Kate Parminter.

The reforms would see some public inquiries replaced by a parliamentary vote on the development, which opponents fear would prevent those directly effected from being able to make their opinions felt.

The groups have launched their campaign by taking out adverts in national newspapers which attack the plans as "disastrous", and they are urging members of the public to write to Tony Blair to express their opposition.

Charles Secrett, executive director of FoE, said: "Government proposals to fast-track the planning system are bad for democracy and bad for the environment.

"If they go ahead people's right to object to projects that damage their community will be severely reduced."

And Stephen Joseph, director of Transport 2000, said that it was important that local people remained able to make their voices heard.

"At a time when the roads lobby and regional government in many areas are calling for investment in roads and a major new trunk roads programme is adistinct possibility, the right of people to have their say on development proposals must be protected," he said.

"Otherwise England will end up like Los Angeles with Tarmac over everything."

However, the government has denied it is intending to prevent local concerns from being expressed.

In an interview with ePolitix.com earlier this year, planning minister Lord Falconer said that the government wanted "a planning system that is confident that it's taking the right decisions".

"You only have a confident planning system if it's one that both a community and business think is taking the right decisions. If you had a system where there were big question marks about the results that it was producing because people didn't trust it, it wouldn't be a robust system.

"So it's got to be a system that has the confidence of both the people in the community and of the business community, otherwise it simply spawns further disputes which lead to longer delays. We want to remove the adversarial elements in the planning system," he said.