Bourton residents hit out at proposed housing development (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Bourton Against Development held a public meeting at Bourton-on-the-Water’s Victoria Hall about a proposed housing development of 100 houses on land off Station Road by Robert Hitchins Ltd

5:00pm Friday 26th October 2012 in News By Ian Craig

ANGRY residents in Bourton-on-the-Water have hit out at a planning application that could see 100 new houses built in their village.

At a packed public meeting in Bourton-on-the-Water’s Victoria Hall, members of residents group Bourton Against Development (BAD) discussed their objections to a recent application for up to 100 houses on land off Station Road.

Members of the group discussed a detailed nine-page letter outlining a range of objections including and that more suitable Brownfield sites were available nearby.

BAD chairman Jim Hickman said the application by Robert Hitchins Ltd, which is several hundred pages long, was deliberately written in a way to confuse and mislead planning officers and others reading it.

“They’ve just tried to bamboozle people with either boredom or science and most of it is rubbish,” he said.

Group spokesman Fiona Formby added the organisation believed a number of points made in the application were based on incorrect data and said they felt Cotswold District Council’s planning officers would be wrong to allow it to be approved on the data it had used.

“We believe we have enough information and proof that, should the application not be refused, we would be able to go to the Local Authority Ombudsman with a case of maladministration,” she said.

“We are prepared to do that even if we have to sell our jewels to afford it.”

She also said the group was concerned Robert Hitchins Ltd intended to change a number of details of the application if outline permission was granted.

Speaking at the meeting, District Cllr Paul Hodgkinson (Lib Dem, Churn Valley) said he was impressed by the amount of work the group had done.

“If you give any of that detail to the planning committee at CDC they would be stupid to say yes to the development,” he said.

Ward Cllr Sheila Jeffrey (Con, Bourton), who was not invited to the meeting, said she had not yet received all the information on the application and would not make a decision until she had.

A spokesman from Robert Hitchins said the company was “disappointed” so many objections had been made to the proposal, but added they have no intention of altering the conditions of the application if it was granted at outline stage.

“The application will be seriously considered by CDC – I’m sure all the objections will be taken into account,” he said.

“One of the great things about the planning process is we all get to have a say.”

For more information on BAD visit bourtonagainstdevelopment.co.uk