Villagers have slammed ‘hideous’ plans for 200 newbuild houses that will ‘stare them in the face’ and allege will make their homes ‘unsellable’.
Residents in Felbridge, Sussex are furious at the proposals put forward by Barratt which will turn the nine acres of green space into a huge development for a mixture of detached, semi-detached and terraced houses as well as flats.
They claim the new estate will clog up roads, cause traffic and parking chaos as well as put a strain on amenities.
But despite the despair of locals the plans for the ‘distinctive neighbourhood’ have now been approved by Mid-Sussex District Council.
Resident Barbara Hollingsworth, a resident in her 80s, told MailOnline: ‘Our house will be unsellable because you’ve got development going on, you’ve got this house being developed, you’ve got a road coming in.’
Stephen Cox’s five-bedroom house, where he has lived for eight years, will be directly affected by the development as the homes will be built within yards of his back garden (pictured)
One house pictured, has been borded off and will be demolished in order for an entrance to the estate to be built
Mr Cox also doubted whether the roads could take the strain of more cars every day
The grandmother added: ‘You’re building houses down this road with lorries with bricks, roof timbers the lot coming in. No one is going to buy the house down here.
‘Come back five years when the development is done, yes, but not when the work starts.
‘For us personally, it’s the noise and the vibration. We’re going to have to take the pictures off the walls.’
While other residents say the plans are going to impact their privacy and the serenity of their gardens.
Local Stephen Cox, 60, said: ‘It is going to be quite intrusive having the houses staring at us in the face, so it changes the perspective of what I have now so massively, the view is going to be very different.’
Mr Cox’s five-bedroom house, where he has lived for eight years, will be directly affected by the development as the homes will be built within yards of his back garden.
The father-of-three said: ‘It’s a case that everything is going to be so close to the back of my house. We don’t have a particularly large back garden, I don’t think that was particularly taken into account when the planners accepted the plans.
‘We have a farm fence on the back, we won’t be able to leave it like that, so we’ll have to put a sightly secure fence around the back.’
Pictured: Barratts’ Planning illustrations show what the homes will look like when finished
Mr Cox, 60, pictured, said: ‘It is going to be quite intrusive having the houses staring at us in the face’
Mr Cox also doubted whether the roads could take the strain of more cars every day.
He said: ‘The fact that nothing has been done to improve the roads in this area despite the fact that in the gardens of many houses here they have these backyard developments for years and years.
‘They have been developing the area and not doing anything to improve the roads which are being used by those people.’
Rebecca Smith, 45, said the school in the village will not be able to take in the influx of residents.
He said: ‘It’s more the traffic issue that is quite big for me. There is a school at the end of the road, that would be in the catchment area of the development and [the school] is already over-subscribed and no one is accepting new patients. So then you have over 200 people coming in.’
The mother added: ‘You cannot get an NHS dentist in this area, there’s very little availability. There’s a local shop in Felbridge that’s it. This junction here backs up during rush hour and it goes all the way up into East Grinstead.’
Pictured: Aerial planning documents show the newbuild homes in Felbridge, Sussex
Paul Tucker, 65, pictured, set up a community action group, Infrastructure First, aimed at informing residents of the impacts the development would have
The 200 homes will be built on the nine acres of green space
Her husband, Fraser added: ‘We need houses, of course we do but that used to be green belt land.’
Retired business analyst, Paul Tucker, 65, set up a community action group, Infrastructure First, aimed at informing residents of the impacts the development would have.
He fears the traffic woes will have an impact on the businesses in the area.
He said: ‘It threatens the economic viability of the town because businesses don’t want to set up because they can’t easily get into the town, people don’t want to travel here to do their shopping bc it’s too difficult, and if you do travel there, like us, you do rat running which is not safe, the roads are not wide enough.’
A spokesperson for Mid Sussex District Council said: ‘The application to build 200 new homes on land south of Crawley Down Road, Felbridge, has been approved by the planning committee of Mid Sussex District Council. This site was allocated for development in our current District Plan.
‘As with all planning applications, there were many consultees and views considered throughout this transparent process, including those of the highway authorities West Sussex and Surrey County Councils.’