A councillor is urging Hucknall residents to fight with all their might against a plan to build thousands of new houses on the outskirts of their town. Mick Murphy is totally opposed to the highly controversial plan by Gedling Borough Council to build 4,500 houses on the Top Wighay Farm site on the Hucknall/Linby border.
Councillor Murphy is not happy that a greenfield site has been chosen by the council as the number one option out of a number of schemes they came up with to meet the housing needs over the next eighteen years. Other protesters have reacted with anger and dismay and they have pledged to fight any such move by the council. They feel such a large number of houses will strangle the infrastructure of the area with added pressure on schools, doctor’s surgeries and health services. They argue that when combined with proposals of the council to build hundreds of council homes on land just north of the Top Wighay Farm site, the total number of new homes is just too many. The project will certainly get the support of builders, property insurance providers and those desperately seeking a home, but local residents, while sympathising with those on the housing waiting list, believe the planned development is just too big for a town with a population of 30,000.
Some of the protesters will get the chance to voice their concerns direct to officials from Gedling Council at a meeting set up for March. Local residents will also be invited to chat with council officers about this and future plans. Both residents and protesters will try to change the mind of the council and will be speaking out vigorously against this proposal.
Councillor Murphy will be at the meeting and he has commented: “Top Wighay Farm is a massive issue for the community and we need everyone’s support if we are to stop any development. The only way we are going to stop it is through people power. Residents in the west of Hucknall might not think it affects them. But it affects everyone in the town. The residents need to come out in force and say we are not going to tolerate this.”