HUNDREDS of concerned residents turned out for a public meeting on development proposals for Haxby and Wigginton.

Ward councillor Ian Cuthbertson and campaigner Martin Lewis Crosby organised the event at Haxby and Wigginton Methodist Church to enable residents to discuss worries over plans which could see Haxby the site of massive development.

Cllr Cuthbertson said around 200 people attended. He said two sites around the villages included in the Local Plan Further Sites document, currently out to public consultation, were of particular concern to many, including a strategic site north of Haxby which could be developed in the first stage of the local plan, with 813 homes, and another “safeguarded” site adjoining it which could add another 712 homes in the second phase of the plan.

He added: “There is a lot of concern about infrastructure in the village. There are very limited access roads which run right into Haxby, and it is evident there would be a big effect.”

Cllr Cuthbertson said the total amount of development proposed for Haxby and Wigginton would take the villages back to a level of growth not seen since the 1960s and 70s.

The last of a string of public exhibitions was also held on Wednesday on the most recent round of consultation, with an event in Parliament Street giving people a chance to see the proposals in more detail, while individual “Village Design Statements” have been drawn up by Strensall with Towthorpe and Wheldrake.

The documents, which have been drawn up by parish councillors who are volunteers from the villages, set out how the communities want the special character of their villages to be safeguarded.

Both design statements were presented to the city council’s cabinet on Tuesday, when councillors approved the documents and agreed to let them go out to public consultation before they could be adopted as “supplementary planning documents” and be part of formal process developments need to go through.

The public consultation on the Further Sites document - the latest stage of the Local Plan - runs until Wednesday, July 16 and more details are online at york.gov.uk/localplan.