More than 1,000 sign Undy homes petition

Jessica Crook and residents are putting up the fight after councillors voted through plans for up to 495 more, as part of the Local Development Plan.

The first batch of up to 200 was agreed for Rockfield Farm last year but this year, a planning inspector warned Monmouthshire council its LDP building target of 4,000 homes until 2021 was too low.

Councillors had to find sites across Monmouthshire for 900 extra homes.

Undy will bear the burden of the biggest portion, with 225 homes on land at Vinegar Hill, Undy, and 70 more for Rockfield Farm.

Before councillors voted, Cllr Crook criticised the proposal.

She was left angered and frustrated after the green light was given and started the petition.

“Over 1,000 people have signed this petition because they are against this vast amount of development without any significant infrastructure and amenities improvements," she said.

"Residents I have spoken to have highlighted all of the existing problems in the area, the B4245, the doctors' surgeries, the changing feel of the village. Worryingly the majority of residents are also unhappy about what they perceive as a total lack of logic and respect for locals in the planning of these developments.

"Numerous people have contacted me to make sure they can sign this petition. Heart wrenchingly many have expressed that they will be moving away from the area due to these plans. The fact that a decision made by the controlling partnership of MCC has caused so many households in the community to come to this conclusion disturbs and unsettles me greatly.

"I would hope that such a show of solidarity and passion by the people in this area - the people who these proposals will really be affecting and the people who know the reality of the impacts the proposals will bring better than any person in an office - will be listened to by the authorities and stir not just appeasements and promises but a concrete change of plan.”