MORE than 1,000 people in Undy have signed a petition opposing plans to build hundreds of new homes.

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

The first batch of up to 200 homes 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 have been told they 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.

In July, an impassioned plea by Cllr Crook against more development failed to win support.

She said: “There is pressure on Undy already and more development is unacceptable.

“This will take the heart out of the village,” she added.

Cllr Crook was left angered and frustrated after the go-ahead was given and started the petition, collecting 1,000 names from people opposing the vast amount of development ‘without any significant infrastructure and amenities improvements.’

“Over 1,000 people from 737 homes have signed the 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 Monmouthshire County Council 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.”

Cllr Crook handed the petition to the chairman of Monmouthshire council, Cllr David Dovey, at a meeting of the full council, at its headquarters, near Usk, on Thursday last week.