We don’t want newbuild homes ruining our picturesque village – they won’t fit in and will destroy our character

RESIDENTS in a picturesque village have slammed plans for newbuild homes – saying they won’t fit in and will destroy its character.

Developers are building 171 homes on a plateau near the Cotswolds village of South Stoke – with 300 more planned.

The newbuild estate will concrete over rolling fields currently listed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Fuming local Colin Webb told the : “Everybody’s really distressed about it, because it’s very much a landscape that’s valued for walking.

“It’s just part of the character of this part of the world.

“I think the number of objections that have gone in signify the extent to the community are so against it all.”

Bath and North Somerset Council said that there have been 1,173 objections to plans for 300 extra homes on the South Stoke Plateau – and only 18 supportive comments.

Phase 1 of the development is already underway, with 171 homes being built on land sold for £19.8million by the Hignett Trust in 2021.

Planning bosses only approved the blueprint in 2018 – after slamming its “piecemeal” lack of detail.

The cheapest home on the Phase 1 estate will be a £325,000 two-bed property.

If plans for three more phases are approved, 300 more homes could be built on the fields around pretty Sulis Manor.

But local councillor Fiona Gourley said that locals only ever agreed to a total of 300 homes across all phases – so only 129 more should come after Phase 1.

She said: “If the plateau is built over, it will be lost forever.”

The newbuild estate is intended to help ease demand for housing in nearby Bath – even though the Somerset spa town has far surpassed its house-building targets.

It comes after residents in the village clubbed together to save the their beloved medieval pub from developers.

The Grade II-listed tavern Packhorse Inn in South Stoke closed its doors after it was bought by property developers who planned to turn it into flats.

This sparked anger among locals who back-tracked the sale by using the 2011 Localism Act to help turn the pub into a community asset.

They raised £1,025,000 through 470 investors – paying as little as £50 each – and bought it themselves.

Residents living in a £325,000 newbuild just 9ft from a 70mph A-road say the council are helping their neighbours – but they’re getting nothing.