Growing fury over homes plan (From Gazette Series)

Growing fury over homes plan

PARISH councillors in Kingswood are so furious about proposals to increase the size of their village by more than ten percent that they have decided to open the matter to public debate.

At their meeting on Monday, Kingswood Parish Council members said they felt that most residents would have little idea of the huge effect the building of 50 new houses at Chestnut Park would have on the village and that a public meeting should be called.

The council had successfully lobbied Stroud District Council to have the proposed number of houses allocated in the district's Local Plan reduced from 50 to 25 but the inspector at the recent public inquiry reinstated the original allocation.

"With just 450 houses in the village, 50 more is a horrendous increase," said Cllr Sue Wickenden.

Chairman Paul Hemming said the increase would mean another 100 vehicles and up to 120 more children as well as the pressure on the infrastructure such as drainage and flood plains.

The pressure on parking, already a problem in the village, would be greatly increased, Cllr Hemmings said, with just one and a half parking spaces per new house now specified by the government.

"We want to carry on resisting. I don't think we should just roll over and accept that this will happen," said Cllr David Rockey.

"A lot of people would be happier with much slower growth," said Cllr Ken Wood.

It was agreed that the council would hold a public meeting at Kingswood Primary Sschool on July 14 to gauge the response of residents to the proposal.

The six-week consultation period on the proposed modification of the Local Plan began on Monday and ends on July 25 but printing delays have meant that some parishes, including Kingswood, still had not received their copies of the plan on Wednesday.

In view of the delay, Kingswood is to ask for the consultation period to be extended.