'Make Bungalow Estates into Conservation Area!'

11.04.00am GMT Mon 18th Jun 2007

Angry residents in Whitton, threatened with overdevelopment of their estate of bungalows, are asking why good examples of the traditional British bungalow estate cannot be protected like a conservation area to preserve their character.

Woodland Crescent is a neat, quiet road of single storey bungalows occupied mainly by elderly people. A developer is threatening to knock down one of the bungalows and build four three bedroom houses setting a precedent for much denser development of a quite different character.

Vincent Cable MP and the three Heathfield Councillors (John Coombs, Bob King and Bill Treble) are backing the residents. Vincent Cable said: "Every one of the residents in the Crescent has opposed the new development to show solidarity with the neighbours immediately affected by loss of privacy and light but also to make the case for preserving the character of the estate. There is strong feeling that fashionable parts of the Borough can invoke Conservation Area status to stop overdevelopment but this no less distinctive type of estate, greatly valued by the residents, currently enjoys no such protection. I know of several parts of Whitton and Heathfield, where residents have a real sense of community and neighbourliness, there is a sense of dread that their community is being torn apart by acquisitive developers".