Two thirds of the 32 acre Scotsdales site at Fordham is to disappear after East Cambridgeshire District Council approved plans for 150 homes and a 75-bed care home.

The Market Street land will also house a shop, what is termed ‘an ancillary medical consultation facility’ together with open space.

Scotsdales says the proposals will not affect the garden centre and nursery that will continue to operate from the remaining land.

Councillors were told that the majority of the application site is located outside the development envelope but adjoins it in places on its eastern boundary.

A small part of the site, south of the existing garden centre and retail buildings, lies inside the established settlement boundary.

The parish council said they accepted the application with certain reservations regarding construction traffic, the need for traffic lights at a pedestrian crossing and a request to the developers to update them on progress as the houses are built.

There was also some concern over water supply.

However villagers did raise concerns – and in considerable numbers – to the application.

The East Cambs planning committee was told that a third of the 111 neighbours contacted offered an opinion – mostly concerned over the scale and impact it would have.

“The sewerage system was installed over 60 years ago and designed for a smaller community,” said one response.

“Anglia Water needs to provide information on capacity, pumping station and flow predictions

Another was concerned about 300-450 additional cars that they feared could cause “a considerable increase in traffic especially during the construction period”.

“Where will they all park?”

Others said the “village is in need of medical facilities and the development will add considerably to the problem”.

Schooling is already inadequate, claimed another, whilst one other villager felt “bus services are inadequate”.

Here are some of the other comments

There will be light and noise disturbance from traffic. Spent years getting a by-pass this development would make Market Street a very busy road again.

Village is being inundated with planning applications.

Scale of proposal will change ethos of village and will be severely detrimental.

250 Homes initially put forward and although number has decreased there is no guarantee further homes will not be built at a later date.

Jobs at the nursery will be lost. Although the garden centre will stay the wholesale nursery will close.

Scale of development is out of proportion for the site,

Will inevitably lead to on street parking on Market Street causing bottlenecks and risks to pedestrians / road users. Any increased housing in Fordham and Soham will be dormitory accommodation for commuters.

Have seen a number of accidents involving children due to lack of infrastructure, roads, and paths and parking before the school extension.

Development will have an unacceptable adverse impact on amenities of properties immediately adjacent to the site by reason of overlooking, loss of privacy and visually overbearing.

At certain times of the day there are delays on the by-pass and more vehicles are coming through the village. This will add even more traffic to an existing busy road. Benefits such as the care home and medical facility should not be taken into consideration as the applicant cannot provide any details.

Adverse impact of 150 homes will vastly outweigh so called benefits.

We chose to move to Fordham for the school and to be part of a village with a strong sense of community. This is being completely stripped due to over-development over last few years.