Angry scenes at new homes exhibition
Furious protesters gathered at the final exhibition about plans to build 40,000 homes around Northampton and Daventry, to voice their objections.
The strength of feeling against the proposals was tangible as protesters held placards at the exhibition at Wootton Community Centre yesterday and spoke in raised voices against the controversial plans.
The West Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit (JPU) put forward the plans for massive redevelopment as part of a strategy to meet Government growth targets by 2026.
Nola Collyer, aged 55, who has lived in Quinton for 25 years, said: "We just feel it's going to swallow up our villages, and the brownfield sites should be looked at first.
"Our community and villages are important to us.
"They are saying 'No' is not an option, but we want to get the message out that it is an option."
Stephen Blyth, who lives in Roade and belongs to the Northamptonshire branch of environmental charity Friends of the Earth, said: "We are very much against the scale of this, which we feel is totally inappropriate for Northampton.
"The lack of provision for infrastructure in the current conditions is not conducive to this kind of growth."
Jo Clamp, of Collingtree, called the plans "absolute madness", while Linda Roseblade, also from Collingtree, said she had major concerns about flooding in Collingtree Park.
Mark Conway, spokesman for the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation said: "It's always going to happen.
"People don't like change, people see issues like views and their own domain as being pretty valuable, and the trouble is that all the time people are getting divorced, starting families or living alone.
"It means we need more houses and they have to go somewhere.
"We are actually enlarging the town in a way that allows it to secure its own uplift like new schools, new jobs, a regenerated town centre, in a way that would not happen if these houses weren't built."
The exhibition was the last one before the consultation period ends on September 30.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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