RESIDENTS say plans for a proposed housing development will increase the size of their village by ten to 12 per cent if it goes ahead, putting huge pressure on local services.

The proposals to build 56 homes on farmland adjacent to Belbrough Lane in Hutton Rudby, near Stokesley, North Yorkshire, were due to be discussed at a meeting of the local parish council last Monday (April 11). But so many villagers wanted to attend, the public meeting was abandoned 15 minutes before it was due to start as the building could not accommodate everyone.

In a statement on behalf of the parish council, clerk Ann Pyle said the chairman arranged for residents to give their views on the planning application at a later meeting instead.

The rescheduled meeting will now take place at the village hall tomorrow (Monday, April 18).

The plans have been lodged by Armstrong Richardson in Stokesley and would involve building a mixture of bungalows and two and three-bedroomed homes. About half of the homes would be classed as affordable.

An application for outline planning permission has already been lodged with Hambleton District Council, but residents say there was very little public consultation from the developers prior to the application being submitted and they were mostly left in the dark.

One resident, Kate Linker, said the development will increase the size of the village by ten to 12 per cent and would have a significant impact on the local school, GP surgery and other amenities and people should have been made more aware.

“Letters went out to residents on Friday informing them of this, but only 27 letters. That’s just houses that have a boundary to the development,” she said.

“But this will affect all the services in the village like the school and GP services.

“Until we started leafleting, most people in the village didn’t know. People are finding out about these proposals by word of mouth. For something that will have such a drastic impact on the village I would have thought there would be more public consultation.”

Rudby Parish Council minutes show architect Mark Barlow attended Rudby Parish Council on December 7 to seek councillors’ informal opinion on the initial proposal.

Planning documents submitted to Hambleton District Council state there was no adverse response to the proposals from the parish council, stating: “The developer made a presentation to the parish council in the village hall on 7th December 2015. It was well received and the developer has received no subsequent adverse response to the proposed scheme.”

Residents say more effort should have been made to make them aware these discussions were due to take place in December, so they could be involved earlier in the process.

Armstrong Richardson did not wish to issue a comment at this stage.