Locals in tiny 100-home village fear traffic 'nightmare' if plans for 2,000-home development are approved - saying 'I don't want to live in a town, I want to live in the countryside'

Locals living in a tiny village fear potential plans for a 2,000 new houses on nearby farmland will worsen their already 'nightmare traffic'.

Residents of Larling in Norfolk - which currently has around 100 homes - fear the area will lose its countryside charm if the proposals are given the green light.

Barkers Farm in the north of village was put forward by the farm's owners as part of Breckland council's call for potential developments another 1,900 homes. 

Father and son duo Steve and Nick Lewin said they expected the 163-acre site . development would not be an extension of Larling but a new village altogether.

However locals believe the possible new wave of houses will exacerbate travel issues while others pointed out they would have lived in a town if that's where they wanted to live.

Dudley Growm, 77, said the traffic through the village was already 'horrendous' if there was an accident on the nearby A11 - and new houses would only make it worse.

'I can't pull out of our road safely most days as we live down a little track,' the retiree said.

'The road traffic is bad. My wife walks our dog 10 miles through the village and fields most days and it is dangerous.

'With almost 2,000 new homes that would be twice as many cars and I don't see how Larling would cope.

'There's been a few new developments crop up in nearby places and they've had to think about building a doctor's, dentist or a shop.

'We don't have anything here so all of that would have to be thought about.

'Hopefully it won't affect me if it takes 20 years to build it, I'm 77 so I might well not be here.

'We'd become one of the largest villages in Norfolk if it happened.'

Amber Grave, 49, has lived in her home in Larling for 30 years.

She said if she wanted to live in the middle of a busy town, she would have moved to one.

'It would be such a shame for them to build around here, I would be so upset and disappointed.'

She added: 'The road is a nightmare if there's any accidents on the A road, it's bad enough as it is without any more cars.

'I don't want to live in a town, I want to stay living in the countryside.'

The grandmother also claimed Larling does not have mains sewage and lacks the amenities needed for such a huge development.

She said: 'I can't see them putting a school or a surgery around here, maybe it's just to keep people happy.

'You have to think about all these things if you want to put thousands of houses in. There's nothing for kids to do at the moment - no parks or play areas.

'I know we've all been bored teenagers but you do worry about the state of the place if you have a lot of them hanging about. It's just fields after fields and it's lovely.'

Becky Smith, 48, move to the village for a slower paced and a calmer life in the countryside last September.

'I don't think the two primary schools we feed into have any space so that is something we have to think about,' the dog groomer said.

'We have a pub but you can't walk to it, it's too far and definitely not along these roads.

'The doctors' can't cope and the roads are so busy all of the time. We'd need a clear plan of how it was going to work.'

Joanna Hutnik, who renovated her new home for seven years, is defiant against the potential plans, adding: 'I moved here because it's not too busy.

'We wouldn't want anymore houses. We moved here because they built near us in our old place. Now it feels like houses are following us.

'You can see trees and fields everywhere and it's nice. I wouldn't want to lose that.'

Larling is one of three locations in the region which could become the new home for a large-scale development.

But the village is very different to the other two proposed sites - one being Dereham which has a population of 19,000 and may get have another  2,500 built on one of its brownsites.

And an old army base in Swanton Morley which may be transformed into a housing estate. 

A further review of the plans by the public will take place in early 2025 prior before the proposal will be submitted for independent examination.

Speaking to the Eastern Daily Press, Nick Lewis said the family were aware that local people were 'up in arms' over the proposals.

However he believed, they were being portrayed unfairly.

'I think most people would have done the same thing if presented with the opportunity - and they're lying if they say they wouldn't,' he said.

'We did this based on the poor state of farming at the moment.

'It doesn't look like there's a light at the end of that tunnel and we were offered such good value for the land, we had to take it.'

This comes as Labour unveiled a major overhaul in planning laws as part of their bid to 'get Britain building' and deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next five years. 

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill was among flagship legislation in the King's Speech as Sir Keir Starmer's agenda was set out to Parliament on July 17 

The Government signalled their intent to remove the power from local residents to block new developments.

They warned their planning shake-up means communities will only be consulted on 'how, not if' homes and infrastructure are built. 

Labour branded the current planning system a 'major brake' on economic growth and has vowed to press ahead with reforms.