VILLAGERS are working out the best ways to protect Davenham from unwanted development.

The parish council is working with residents to put together a neighbourhood plan, but knows it needs to allocate land for housing.

Clr Arthur Wood said: “We’ve discussed trying to put some parameters down because at some point we have got to identify land for housing we would be prepared to see in the village.

“Not ‘we’ as a parish council but ‘we’ as a community.

“It’s going to be a difficult one, I think we would all accept that.

“A neighbourhood plan is a land use plan, all the other things like zebra crossings would be nice but are the sort of things we should put in appendices.

“If we wanted a village hall or Scout hut then we would put in land for that.

“We need to pencil in another public meeting with the draft document and talk that through before we start trying to pull it all together as a final document.”

Planning applications are currently being considered by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) for land off Jack Lane and land at Hilltop Farm.

The parish council is also concerned that developers have earmarked a site in front of Davenham Hall Nursing Home, in London Road.

Clr Wood said the land is in the village conservation area, the site affects a listed building and is protected in the Vale Royal Local Plan.

“It would be a disaster if a piece of land so well protected and so critical to the landscape of this village if it should be allowed to revert to housing development,” he said.