‘It will be a disaster’: mayor’s dire warning over developer-led housing outside Sydney

The Wilton Greens housing development in Wollondilly council, on Sydney's south-western fringe. Experts have warned of a severe shortfall of infrastructure in the area. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Suburban utopias can be deceiving, as the residents of the once small village of Wilton are discovering.

Travel south down the Hume Highway out of Sydney and at the 80km mark new areas of Wilton are taking over paddocks. They have catchy bucolic names like Bingara Gorge, Wilton Greens and Panorama.