PLANS to create up to 550 new homes on farmland on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland have prompted concerns about increased traffic on rural and residential roads.

Avant Homes and LKA Developments intend to submit separate planning applications for housing developments on a 26.4-hectares site near the village of Woodhouses.

Avant Homes hopes to build 230 homes to the north of the site with access from Etherley Moor. The two, three and four-bedroom homes, ten per cent of which will be affordable, will be built in two phases, with work potentially starting on site next summer if the application is successful.

LKA Development will seek outline planning permission for up to 320 family homes at the south of the site.

Access will be from Greensfield Road and a landscape buffer will be introduced to protect and increase biodiversity at Coal Burn, which separates the two proposed developments.

The Woodhouses Farm plans were unveiled for the first time at a consultation event at Bishop Auckland Football Club yesterday (Thursday). Some residents expressed concerns the additional housing would increase traffic on nearby roads.

One resident said: “I have nothing against the houses but I am worried the road infrastructure will not be able to cope. This is my big concern but if something can be done to address this I would have no objection at all.”

Another said: “My main issue is road safety and the additional traffic on Etherley Moor, where the proposed access is. There is a garage on this road and children use it to go the little school in the village.

“I also want to know why they are building on green field sites when there are brown field sites two miles away in Tindale Crescent.”

Joe Ridgeon, strategic land manager at Avant Homes, said highways experts were carrying out a thorough investigation of the road infrastructure and had already identified improvements to prevent any adverse effects.

He said: “We have had a good turn out today and will consider all of the feedback we receive before the final plans go in.”

To view the plans and comment online, visit wyg.com/woodhouses-farm