Backlash over housing plan pays off as council rejects scheme

The application to build just 12 homes east of Martin Frobisher Drive and Holyrood Crescent in Altofts were met with a wave of objections with more than 86 letters being sent to the planning department.

Planners rejected the scheme saying the new site would be accessed through Martin Frobisher Drive - a cul-de-sac - which would compromise highway safety for those already living there.

But the site is also green belt, which means special circumstances are required for planning permission to be granted.

The planning department also asked the applicants for a Section 106 agreement on how they would help reduce the impact of the development on the community.

Two requests were made in June then July, but the planning chiefs noted: "To date no contact has been forthcoming."

The application, submitted by Asset Capital, was for nine two-bedroom houses and three three-bedroom homes.

The majority of the concerns by the residents were over the proposed access to the site, but many also feared the village's status itself was under threat.

One wrote: "As has happened with Cutskye and Whitwood, the villages would be destroyed, becoming instead one massive sprawl of development with no definition between one area or another destroying the village feel completely and setting a precedence for more green field sites to be lost to developments both in this area and beyond."

Another said: "We have had numerous years of building activity in Altofts now. The area is losing its feeling of a village and there is not the infrastructure within the village to support it- GPs, schools etc."

Finally, one added: "Our quaint little village is quickly becoming a concrete jungle that I strongly oppose."