Opposition to village homes

Residents have raised concerns about a plan to build a number of homes in a village.

The proposals by Juliff Homes would see the new houses built on land off Walcot Lane next to Drakes Broughton Village Hall.

A number of villagers have objected saying the land already floods and the problems would be made worse by building more homes.

A villager in Hollyblue Close said: “If the playing field already holds and carries water now and is having drainage problems how is another lot of houses going to help this issue? It won’t.

“I live in a new build next to the development application plan and the drainage here is absolutely shocking – I can’t get out the back door after heavy rainfall because of drainage issues – which still haven’t been rectified.”

Another objector said: “I have lived in Drakes Broughton for over 40 years. What used to be a quiet friendly village is now turning into a town.

“I oppose to the new houses being built due to how the local school which is already overcrowded will cope with anymore families arriving in the village.

“Where the new houses are planning to be built the road is very busy with people parking to take and collect their children at the school. The village hall car park is not large enough to accommodate.”

Another objector said he was worried about existing flooding in the area and whether the new homes would make it worse.

“The natural drainage in that area is poor, flooding of Brickyard Lane has increased since the new houses were built,” the objection said.

“The playing field adjacent is having to have extensive drainage carried out to make it suitable for use during the winter.”

A plan to build 10 homes on the land was rejected by planners at Wychavon District Council in 2018 and an appeal was rejected by a government planning inspector later that year.

This came after the plan was first put forward in 2017 but eventually scrapped.

The land has now been included as a potential site for homes in the ongoing and much-delayed review of the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) which sets out where tens of thousands of homes will be built around the county in the next two decades.