RESIDENTS have been urged to have their say over a massive new homes scheme before their town becomes ‘one giant housing estate’.

A public meeting over plans for more than 400 new homes at Spon Green in Buckley was held on Friday.

Buckley resident John Woolley, chairman of a group set up to object to the scheme, told the 40 residents who attended of his concerns.

He said: “It is a sizeable development and the principle areas that we have come up with in terms of our concerns are the schools, doctors and health services, traffic and roadways, the green barrier, sewerage and utilities and the overall sustainability.

“In terms of doctors and health services we're about to see a practice move out of the town and the information we have had form one of the practices here is that they are at capacity.

"We're looking at 400 houses and even if you take a conservative estimate we're looking at 800 to 1,000 people that are going to want to access the services and facilities.

“The circumstance we have is the Unitary Development Plan which controls where you can build in Flintshire has gone out of date and the new plan, the Local Development Plan, is not approved yet so there is this limbo.

“If we're not careful at some point we're just going to be one giant housing estate with a very small town centre.

"We have until May 4 to submit our observations but if you can’t get it in before then you can put in late observations - it will still be considered as long as it is in time before the planning committee met.

“The main thing for us to do is to get the word out to the community. Please speak to your neighbours and let them know the application is there. It will have a massive impact on the town.”

His father cllr Arnold Woolley also spoke, offering residents examples of material planning objections they may wish to consider including loss of light, overlooking and loss of privacy, highway safety and noise.

He said: “This is a battle and it is going to be won by the community. I can put up all the technical points but we badly need your and your neighbours individual objections on material planning grounds.

"Please spread the word, get the community involved."

He also encouraged residents to gather evidence of their objections in photos and videos to be submitted to the planning committee.

Town councillor John Thornton told the meeting: “I understand there are about 700 properties around Buckley on pieces of land which have been passed and not yet developed - I think all of those should be done first.

“The town council will be backing your claims because we are concerned about the consequences. If we don’t have the facilities in the future we are going to be in deep trouble. It is going to be a dormitory town with no facilities and no reason for expansion.”

Mr Woolley encouraged those who are unsure of how to access the plans or make an objection to visit Buckley Library where the staff can help.