PLANS for a new housing estate to be built in Harrington are set to be given the green light despite fierce opposition.

Story Homes has applied to Allerdale council to build 115 homes on land east of the A597 in High Harrington, backing onto Harringdale Road and Beaufort Avenue.

A decision on the project, which has been recommended for approval by planning officers, is due to be made by Allerdale's development panel on Tuesday.

But the proposal has caused controversy and sparked 34 letters of objections from residents, who are concerned about traffic congestion.

The development would have a mixture of two, three, four and five-bedroom homes as well as four one-bedroom flats.

It would include 23 affordable houses - 16 to be social rentals and seven discounted homes.

Michael Strickland, of Harringdale Road, said: "The roads through High Harrington are already very busy and congested with often queues of traffic waiting on Scaw Road and Crooklands trying to join the A597 as well as a large build up of traffic on the A597 trying to join the A595 and A597 to the South and East respectively. This traffic has become worse over the past few years with the amount of small developments and I dread to think what a large number of additional dwellings would bring."

He added he was concerned about such a large development being in close proximity to the quiet cul-de-sac of Harringdale Road, potentially causing increased noise.

"We are very concerned about the above points and our friends and neighbours feel the same, we would urge you to strongly consider alternative locations for additional housing as our small and crowded village can surely take no more," he said.

Kevin Farrington, of Main Road, said: "You can't keep granting permission for development without relieving traffic and investing in infrastructure. No further development, in my view, should go ahead - It's getting ridiculous."

Concerns were also raised about schools capacity.

Cumbria County Council said Harrington's Beckstone Primary School did not have the capacity to accommodate the 29 children this new planned estate is expected to bring to the area and neither could the nearby St Mary’s Catholic School. However Distington primary school would be able to accommodate those children.

Andrew Callaway, of Seadown Drive, said: "We already have a development in the process of being constructed in Harrington for which we do not have the school places. Most of the surrounding village schools are very small and cater for children from their village. How will having children driven out to these villages affect the schools? How will this affect the children living in the new developments? Moving the children out of the area where they live to go to school is not a good solution and damages the sense of community. I feel strongly that the Harrington schools accommodation should be enhanced to cater for the number of students that

are here now before any planning is granted to bring even more children to the area.

"The main road is already very busy and often sees traffic queuing through the bottle neck that exists just below St Mary's Church. This is the area where children cross the road to get to Beckstone Primary School and I worry that more cars will increase the risk of an accident. There will be more cars with the existing development just up the hill which will add to this congestion. Before another 115 homes are built, with the 200 plus extra cars they will bring, the existing roads need to be improved."

The proposal will be discussed by Allerdale's development panel on Tuesday at 1pm at Allerdale House.