Community 'at tipping point' in push for homes

Reporter John Wimperis talks to villagers in Backwell, a North Somerset community that feels under siege from development

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WALK around Backwell and it's not hard to spot placards reading "save our fields" and "save our village" planted outside people's houses.

The North Somerset village is facing some of the largest amounts of new housing developments in the West.

There are about 2,000 homes in the village but planning permission has already been granted for developers to build about 800 more. It has been described as a scale of development “unprecedented” outside of the larger towns in the district. For many in the village, it is too much.

"The percentage of what they are putting in Backwell is bananas - absolutely bananas and absolutely not fair," says mum-of-two Wendy.

One site where 65 homes are being built is right next door to the village's scout hut and a playground. Walking into the park with her husband and two children one day, she said the family ended up getting splashed by water from the dust prevention spray at a building site next to the park which was picked up by the wind.

"I can’t believe I got splashed with stuff just walking to the local park," she told me. "We actually thought it was starting to rain.”

The park is just around the corner from the village’s beloved Strawberries and Cream Tree - one of only two in the country which blossoms in both white and pink. It has become a particular focal point for local anger at the situation. Metal fencing has been put up around the tree to protect it from construction traffic on the residential roads around it, and locals have tied painted signs and picnic blankets to the fencing. “RIP our little village,” reads one sign.

In a village where the local councillor has warned that building the developments already approved could take up to ten years, Wendy's main concern is the impact on road safety. She said: “I would not have believed this at all five years ago but something is going to happen, whether that’s through the building work or the amount of traffic.”