DOZENS of Falfied residents turned out to have their say about plans for a 3,000-home village bordering the town.

Proposals were made public back in May for the garden village at Buckover, on 191-hectares of land owned by the Tortworth Estate, plans that were met with mixed reactions from residents in neighbouring Thornbury.

The presentation to the Falfield Parish Council on Tuesday, July 19, by the team from Tortworth Estate was to “quell any rumours and explain where the project is going” as described by Rob Garnham from Mediation In Planning.

Speaking in front of the council and members of the public, he said: “We have no intention of just turning up with a plan, we want to engage the community and deliver something we can be proud of.”

Adding to this point, Robert Moreton, owner of the Tortworth Estate, said: “We are not in this to develop and leave, because we are still here.

“We want to deliver a legacy through the garden village.”

Reiterating the timescales made at the meeting in Thornbury, the team highlighted the expectation for a five planning process, followed by building over ten years.

Referring to the worries of overdevelopment in the area, and a desire to work with the community to build something they want, Mark Chadwick from Hunter Page Planning said: “We can’t keep adding houses to villages, tacking them onto Bristol or ‘onion ring’ around Thornbury, because the infrastructure cannot take them.

“We are wanting to start this iterative process, working with you from the very beginning.

“If at the end of the day you want to object then do, if you want to accept then that is great.”

But even before discussion with the public over the potential development began, points were raised over the length of time it has taken for the team to address the council.

Council chairman Cllr Jane Hathway said: “Frankly, I am disappointed that you came to Thornbury before coming to us, given the development is mostly within our parish.

“We might only be a small parish, but we are a strong parish.”

Arguing against the use of the term “village” Falfield resident Gary Pearn said: “It is nonsense to call 3,000 homes a village – it has the potential for business and shopping, and given its size, it is most definitely a town.”

Another resident then supported this by asking to “strip away the verbage of garden villages and enter the 21st century.”

Highlighting the concern over the choice of location for the development, fellow resident Sue Hicks said: “Why are you building it on this side of the motorway? The Tortworth Estate is massive, but you choose to create a settlement that will simply bridge Thornbury and Falfield!”

This was then supported by another member of the audience who asked: “Would 10 years of building mean 10 years of trucks trundling up the A38? Because that is unacceptable.”

Current Buckover resident Alan Edmunds also questioned the team about how they would deal with existing residents, asking: “what about those of us who already live in Buckover and are quite happy with where we live?”

Asking the audience not to simply “go out and object against the plan” before taking part in the upcoming consultation process later this year, Mr Chadwick promised that the team would be taking the questions away from the meeting and would return with answers soon.