RESIDENTS have packed out Whittington Village Hall for a public meeting on plans for 230 new homes.
The event was organised by Whittington and Fisherwick Parish Council to discuss the proposals for land adjacent to Sheepwash Farm.
A number of speakers addressed the meeting on the controversial scheme.
Concerns were raised on issues such as highway and pedestrian safety, particularly about additional traffic using Fisherwick Road, the narrow canal bridge and The Dog Inn crossroads.
Residents also highlighted fears about safe routes to school, pressure on Whittington Primary School and the local GP surgery, and whether the village’s existing services could cope with development on this scale.
Other concerns included the loss of green belt and agricultural land, and the potential impact of a large new housing estate on the rural and historic character of Whittington.
Whittington and Fisherwick Parish Council has voted to oppose the application.
Parish council chair Andrew Craddock said:
"It was great to see so many residents at the public meeting, which demonstrates the level of interest and depth of feeling about this proposed new development.
"The parish council has voted to oppose it – and the majority of residents at the meeting felt that this is in the wrong part of the village, with significant highways issues and that the scale of development at 230 houses is too large.
"We are encouraging all residents who have not already done so to submit their response to the application to Lichfield District Council. They have until 8th September to do so."
Cllr Richard Holland, one of Whittington’s district councillor’s spoke at the meeting. He said:
"I want to thank the parish council for commissioning an independent report, and the residents who packed the hall. Their thorough, evidence-led opposition matters, and the report is unambiguous – the developer's own transport assessment is so deficient that the application should be refused on highways grounds alone.
"Having already called this application in for full committee scrutiny after speaking with parish councillors, I attended as a district councillor to hear residents' concerns directly – and what I heard only reinforced that this scheme deserves the rigorous examination it is now going to get."
