RESIDENTS in Woolley Street in Bradford on Avon have met to discuss their opposition to plans to build 57 homes on land next to their homes.

Redcliffe Homes, which has not yet submitted the plan to Wiltshire Council, wants to build the homes on land designated by the town council as green space in the proposed Neighbourhood Plan.

At a meeting at The George pub on Wednesday night the community group The Friends of Woolley said they were determined to fight the plan.

Tracey Bollans, whose family has lived next to the site for three generations, said: "I live there, my grandparents lived there, the land has been used recreationally for 80 years. I have pictures of my uncles and family playing cricket there."

The friends, who support the Bradford Neighbourhood Plan, say Redcliffe has not given them enough notification about the plans and has not given them enough time to respond.

Ollie Squire said: "We know people in other parts of Bradford, who won't be affected by the plan, have received leaflets. As the leaflets gave a date to respond some people just think that because we have passed October 31 it will be too late."

Kurt Paulus added: "I feel that the responses to the people living in Woolley has been very selective. Some of us received the leaflets from Redcliffe and responded but never heard anything back."

Emma Jones, strategic planner for Redcliffe, said that the developer had been in talks with the Friends of Woolley for two years.

She said: “I have had about 40 responses out of the 300 leaflets which were delivered. I don’t think it would be constructive to hold a big open consultation, smaller focused groups would be the way to go about it so you don’t have people shouting over each other.

"The Neighbourhood Plan draft hasn't been submitted yet and Spitfire had their planning application accepted which went against the plan."

Bradford on Avon town councillors have also noted the opposition to the development after the subject was discussed at a council planning meeting on November 8.

Cllr Gwen Allison, head of the planning committee, said: “The space that the development is proposed for is designated green space in the Neighbourhood Plan, it is special green space because of the views and the openness.

“With the two developments we already have at the moment the infrastructure is bursting at the seams. We have always asked about phasing but it doesn’t happen.”