Isle of Wight housing plan meeting over Newport greenfield site

Gallantgreen is proposing 20 houses — with the potential for hundreds more — between Mountbatten Drive and Sylvan Drive.

Concerns have been raised by residents about the plans' impact on wildlife, including due to an increase in traffic and greenfield development.

Islanders are invited to attend the meeting, which will start at 6pm at 64 High Street, Newport, on October 2.

• Read more about the plans here

One local resident, Karen Edwards, has raised worries over the potential loss of what she called valuable public green space, saying it is something locals don't want to lose.

She said footpaths through the site are used for nature walks and are a safe route home for schoolchildren.

She also slammed plans to make St Augustines Road a through road, instead of a cul-de-sac, upsizing it from the existing three houses to ten, and providing access across Petticoat Lane footpath to an as yet unbuilt 13 houses.

Other residents are split.

One said development was inevitable as there had always been plans to build extra houses there, while another said while they understood houses needed to be built, it would turn greenfields into a concrete jungle.

Gallantgreen is also seeking permission for the principle of development and access to the rest of the site - a further six hectares.

In 2000,  203 new houses were approved but were never built.

View the plans, 23/01410/FUL, on the Isle of Wight Council's planning register. Comments can be submitted until October 6.