VILLAGERS near York who claim development has reached "ridiculous" proportions today united against plans to build more housing.

Residents in Strensall packed a parish council planning meeting to voice their concerns over proposals by Hogg Builders to construct a mix of 15 terraced and semi-detached houses behind the main thoroughfare, The Village.

Protesters, who heard that more than 80 houses had been built on average in Strensall every year for the last ten years, are to submit a 200-name petition to City of York Council. They claim the village cannot handle further development as the local primary school is already massively oversubscribed and other key services are at bursting point.

But Hogg Builders says it is fulfilling the "desperate need" for housing in the York area.

Banners were waved in the meeting which read: "No to more building developments".

Other concerns are:

It will create "traffic chaos" because of extra cars clogging the roads. A proposal to narrow The Village street to improve sight lines out of the development would affect on-street parking.

Local wildlife and a conservation area would be adversely affected.

Drainage issues and concerns over added air pollution.

Parish council chairman Coun Philip Thorpe told the meeting: "I've lived in Strensall for 40 years and have seen tremendous deterioration. We've reached saturation point with development in Strensall."

Coun Elizabeth Blackley, who is chairwoman of governors at the primary school, said its standard capacity was 470 pupils, but the number currently stood at 525 pupils because of the demand.

She said: "The school has had to turn away pupils this year as it is.

"Where would these new children go to school? We simply haven't got room for them."

Another resident said: "It won't be safe for my children to play in the street because of the extra traffic."

Hogg Builders managing director Geoff Scott said: "The planning application has been submitted to comply with current planning policies and is there to address the desperate housing shortage in the York area."

The closing date for objections is November 18.

Updated: 16:02 Friday, November 01, 2002