NEARLY 700 people have signed a petition to stop a large housing development on a key green field site close to a popular village green.

And about 100 individual letters of objection to the proposed development in Scotby have also been submitted to Carlisle City Council.

Members are due to consider the outline application from Cheshire-based land promoter Gladman Land for 90 houses at Townhead Farm, to be known as Rookery Park.

The proposed development would be built on land south east of Scotby village green .

That is something which some residents are furious over, highlighting that a bench is sited on the green for people to take in the view across the proposed site towards the Pennines.

Wetheral parish council on Wednesday voted unanimously to object to the proposed housing estate when its members were briefed about the development plans.

Residents from the Defeat Gladman Land At Scotby campaign group addressed the meeting.

Peter Devenish, of Ghyll Road, Scotby, warned that Gladman Land was an “avaricious” land promoter and that planning permission could open the door to it targeting other key green sites in the area.

Council chairman David Hughes said the estate would be an over-development of Scotby where other sites were already earmarked for hundreds of homes.

Councillor David Pattinson said the scheme made a “complete mockery” of the city council’s Local Plan 2015-2030, which guides housing policy.

A city council consultation period on the planning application is set to close on December 21.

Protesters say the controversial site has been “discarded” for housing purposes in the Carlisle City Council Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment because of its “unacceptable landscape impact”.

It falls outside the council’s District Local Plan, which earmarks suitable development sites.

The Cumbria association of the Campaign for Protection of Rural England has also formally objected and its county planning officer Lorayne Woodend Wall condemned the plan as an “unacceptable intrusion into open countryside”.

Carlisle MP John Stevenson recently warned that Carlisle’s proposed Garden Village masterplan was in danger of being undermined by controversial large scale village housing plans such as the Scotby scheme.

Mr Stevenson was speaking after he met the Scotby residents who launched a community campaign to halt the scheme.

He said previously: “This piece of land is not in the local plan and was in fact rejected by the city council.”

There is also concern over lack of infrastructure and anger among residents in the Park Road area.

They have said that they are concerned about the increased traffic which would come with that many homes, on an already busy route beside the village school.

Gladman Land has not sent representatives to any of the public meetings or hosted a community presentation of its plans.

The Cumberland News has approached Gladman Land for a comment but had not had a response at the time of going to press.

The company has already detailed its intentions in a consultation letter sent to residents ahead of launching the formal planning application process.

There has been growing concern over the number of housing plans already approved in Scotby and its lack of infrastructure to cope.

Carlisle City Council, as the planning authority will have the final say on any plans.