Leaflet campaign hits at new homes proposals

The flyers were handed out around the Yapton to alert villagers to the prospect of 59 homes being built on a site off Bilsham Road.

About a third of the plot is occupied by an industrial estate. The rest is undeveloped land.

Campaign leader Andrew Knight said businesses on the estate were very perturbed about the proposals. He has also started the website www.support-your-parish.moonfruit.com to provide further information to those who want to know more about the campaign.

He states that the proposal by a building firm called Gladedale would set a precedent for building on any piece of countryside.

The proposed development would result by his calculations in an extra 75,000 vehicles a year using Bilsham Road and the notorious Comet Corner junction which links Yapton to the A259 to the south.

This would be one effect of the influx of additional residents being too much for the village's general infrastructure to bear.

Gladedale has indicated it wants to build a mixture of housing between two and four bedrooms on the land.

The company claims the intended scheme would produce 25,158 vehicle movements a year based on 33-36 movements daily to the homes.

It has outlined its proposals in a leaflet, as reported in the Observer, but no formal planning application has yet been made.