District councillors are set to decide on plans to build up to 90 new homes in a Worcestershire village.
Bloor Homes wants to build a huge new housing estate on land south of Stourport Road in Great Witley.
Members of Malvern Hills District Council’s planning committee will meet on Wednesday (June 5) to make a decision on the proposals, which have been recommended for approval by planning officers.
The plans have proved unpopular with villagers and with local parish councils.
Great Witley CP Parish Council, in its consultation response, said: “The scale of the proposed development is considered to represent a disproportionate increase for the existing village, detracting from its setting, creating a significant loss of open space and extending urbanisation to an unacceptable level.
“Further development would diminish the availability of healthcare and school places and would increase traffic and pollution. It would be detrimental to the wellbeing of residents.”
Abberley Parish Council said: “There is no doubt that the flurry of new developments in rural communities is having a deleterious effect on said communities and is stretching the idea of sustainability, much vaunted by the government, to the limit of what is believable.
“The answer to housing shortages cannot simply be a matter of building more, quite often developer led and very often in the wrong places.”
Astley and Dunley Parish Council also wrote that it strongly objected to the application, but county highways had no objection.
Rivers Academy Trust said each year group at Great Witley CofE Primary School will be undersubscribed from September 2026.
The vast majority of the 67 neighbours who responded to the public consultation were against the plans, raising concerns about the size of the development in a village of less than 200 homes and with “minimal” public transport.
Some villagers pointed out the traffic problems that already exist in the area, with rush-hour tailbacks at the bridges in Stourport and Ombersley set to get worse if more homes are built.
Bloor Homes said 40 percent of properties on the development would be “affordable homes” for rent, shared ownership or First Homes, and that some of the houses would be bungalows.
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