A chronic lack of services and daily traffic jams in Thornbury would make life “completely miserable” for people moving into a proposed new housing estate, a public inquiry heard. The town has grown so fast that existing residents have felt “resentment” about the pressure being piled on GPs and other facilities, which has made it tricky to integrate newcomers into a sense of community, the hearing was told.
Lib Dem Cllr Maggie Tyrrell said the issues would only get worse if a government-appointed planning inspector granted permission for 595 homes, along with a primary school, shops, parkland, new roads and paths on top-quality farmland west of Park Farm, Butt Lane. She was speaking on day two of the appeal by developers Barwood Development Securities against South Gloucestershire Council’s failure to determine its application.
Cllr Tyrrell, who represents Thornbury on the local authority and also chairs the town council’s planning committee, told the inquiry on Friday, September 30: “I want to highlight the anxieties coming from the community into the council. From this town’s point of view, we have taken an enormous and quite rapid growth in housing.
