RESIDENTS have voiced fury over plans to build a housing development on the edge of a village where there are widespread road safety concerns.

Developer Swain Ltd has applied to Hambleton District Council for outline consent to build ten homes with access on to a winding stretch of Raskelf Road, Helperby, just yards from traffic calming measures which villagers claim fail to stop motorists from speeding past homes.

Residents fear if the scheme, on a half-hectare site, is approved it could open the area to further developments, creating pressure on the village’s infrastructure and aggravating traffic issues.

Helperby resident Lorraine Tyreman, a mother-of-four, said the proposals had sparked concerns for the safety of children and elderly people in the area.

She said: “The road is bad enough as cars and lorries continually hit the village too fast - the traffic calming measures are there for a reason. To suggest having access to a housing development there is beyond a joke.”

Resident Frank Midgley, a retired lorry driver, said the road was so narrow agricultural vehicles had to straddle the road and without major roadworks access to the proposed development would be dangerous.

However a spokesman for the developer said the proposed site layout was “efficient, safe and user-friendly” and would create an integrated residential community “with a sensitive relationship to the existing settlement and countryside setting.”

He said ten homes could easily fit on the site and added: “A key design principle for the proposed development is to ensure that the new development will respect and blend with the local character of the surrounding residential built form.”