PLANS to build more than 100 homes in a village near Cirencester have met with opposition from residents and the ward councillor.

Gladman Developments has opened a public consultation in South Cerney, allowing people to comment on its plans to build the new homes on a field behind Berkeley Close.

The proposed development would include up to 50 per cent affordable homes, as well as open space and landscaping.

Gladman plans to submit a planning application to Cotswold District Council (CDC) shortly after the consultation period closes, but the developers have not yet set a date to bring it to an end.

Leaflets outlining the proposals and detailing how people can submit comments have been distributed to about 630 households and businesses.

Councillor Juliet Layton, CDC ward member, said: “I cannot believe that site could support 105 houses, it would be extra cramped and there would be access issues, especially as the entrance would mean more cars coming out of The Leaze.

“I am absolutely against the proposal. I haven’t heard anything supportive from around the village, which is not surprising.”

She said more new homes would only add to the parking and traffic issues on the surrounding streets.

Resident Steve Sweet, 35, argued that Ann Edwards School is already at capacity while extra homes could have a psychological impact.

He said: “Those of us at this end of the village get a small sense of space from the field and to box us in with yet more houses and traffic would have significant psychological effects. Whilst traffic, footfall, pressures on local amenities and services can all be surveyed, counted and researched, the immeasurable effects on people’s mental wellbeing can’t be.”

In the Gladman Developments leaflet, it says: ‘We give careful consideration to the sites we choose, identifying sensible locations in areas where councils have not met their full housing needs.

‘Whilst we fully understand why people may have concerns, they need to be balanced against the requirement to provide much needed new houses, to meet the differing needs of an increasing population and address housing affordability.’

However, Cllr Layton said that it is “not in the new Local Plan to have extra housing [in South Cerney], we’ve done our quota,” but said despite this “each and every plan will be judged on its merits, that doesn’t stop it.”

She said the site is not protected for special scientific interest, despite being used, she believes, for crop-growing, and even though the Environmental Agency has re-graded the field as a Flood Zone 1 area, something also pointed out in the developers’ leaflet, “it does flood badly because a brook runs along the bottom of the field.”

Gladman points out in its leaflet that consulting with specialists in regards to issues such as schools, traffic and flooding in and around the site would be part of any planning application submitted.

Visit your-views.co.uk/southcerney for more information.