RESIDENTS angry about renewed plans to build on fields in Petersfield have collected more than 200 signatures opposing the idea.

The petition outlines their opposition to another plan to build a 200-home estate on land at Causeway Farm.

Broadway Park off The Causeway backs on to the fields, and members of its residents’ association are behind the petition.

Association spokesman Elizabeth Williamson said: “We have collected signatures from Broadway Park and The Causeway. We don’t want this estate.

“A lot of the area is a water meadow, and we think building on it will cause flooding, the estate will also create more traffic on the roads, and what about the pressures on the doctors surgeries, the schools and the hospital, caused by the people moving there?

“It will also have environmental implications for wildlife and birds.”

Mrs Williamson has also written to Prime Minister David Cameron outlining her concerns, which were forwarded on to the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Part of the reply received on March 12 said: “The national planning policy framework sets out that great weight should be given to conserving the landscape and scenic beauty in national parks.”

A similar proposal by developers Barratt Homes, Bovis and 4LL was turned down last year by South Downs National Park Authority planners.

That proposal included fewer houses, and offered benefits like a community centre. But it was dealt with before the Petersfield Neighbourhood Plan (PNP) was approved last November when Petersfield residents voted by a large majority to accept it in a referendum.

In the PNP the Causeway Farm fields are earmarked for an estate and the developers behind the latest set of plans – David Wilson Homes, Bovis Homes and 4LL – are only planning to build housing, and their proposals do not include any new community facilities.

The deadline for objections to the latest proposal being considered by the national park authority is Good Friday, March 25. The date for a decision on the plans hasn’t yet been announced.

To view the proposal and comment on it, visit the planning section of the South Downs National Park Authority website, using reference SDNP/15/05258/FUL