DEVELOPMENT: Too much for one village

I am appalled to read of yet another application for a large development on the edge of Longframlington, (Northumberland Gazette, September 27).

When does a village become a city? The village has already increased its housing by almost 50 per cent in the past six years, from approximately 430 homes in 2012 to over 600 built or approved.

An application for 40 properties beside Lightpipe Farm was rejected recently, but no doubt a revised application will be submitted for slightly fewer homes there. Now we have an application for 58 across the main road from that.

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The village has no school, with all children having to be taken by bus or car in one direction for first or primary school, the opposite direction for middle school, and 10 miles to Morpeth for high school, which is already at capacity without all the development occurring there.

There is no public transport to Alnwick so children opting to go to high school there (also at capacity) will have to be driven by parents.

Our GP services are stretched to the limit as we only have a part-time surgery as an extension from the Rothbury practice.

Public transport only comes into the southernmost part of the village on the way to Rothbury, with the last bus from Newcastle leaving there before 6.30pm, and from Morpeth at 7pm.

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The A697 is a rural road leading to Scotland and traffic streams through most of the day, with lots of heavy lorries avoiding the A1. The footpaths alongside the road are very narrow and there are bends which are difficult to see round.

Other facilities in the village are of high quality, but are limited, although increasingly we see delivery vans from the major supermarkets bringing grocery orders.

Some of us have endured almost five years of constant building work near to our homes with the two developments by Cussins at Fenwick Park. That continues as the footpaths and roads remain unfinished until all properties are completed.

Travel beyond the village is a nightmare, with restricted road width and closures in completing buildings adjacent to the A697 and along the Alnwick Ford road at the North end, as well as the development under construction at the West end along the Rothbury Road.

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It appears to me that the target is not to meet housing need in this area, but rather housing greed from developers and landowners, who see a way of increasing the value of their land by labelling it as potential housing stock.

When will it stop?

Veronica Thomson,

Longframlington