FURIOUS Hartford residents turned out in their droves to see more detailed plans of the housing development which will take the place of the recently closed Mid Cheshire College campus.

A steady stream of villagers filtered through the doors of Winnington Park Rugby Club last night, Thursday, to give their views to the representatives of housing developers Lane End Developments.

One man told the architect who designed the site: “This village is very, very angry.”

It came after it was revealed by the Guardian last week that the Warrington and Weaver Vale College (formerly Mid Cheshire College) campus in Chester Road, had been sold to Lane End Developments and plans were in place to demolish the buildings and erect 108 homes in its place.

A consultation event was held at the rugby club last night where residents were invited to go along, view the plans and fill out feedback forms giving their views on the blueprints.

However, many residents just wanted to vent their frustrations at losing their college.

Les Andrews, who has lived in Hartford for 33 years, said: “It’s absolutely disgusting. They have spent several million on a new sports hall, new art block, new performing arts theatre and it will all be knocked down for houses. It’s just such a shame that how much money you can get for the land has become more important than the educational needs of local people.

“But even if we’re resigned to losing the college - to turn the land into houses is ridiculous. The infrastructure is at beyond breaking point. Surely, we have had enough by now.

“We will all be writing into the council to object and we will be doing all we can to oppose it, but it will make no difference whatsoever.”

The information on show at the event revealed that the 3.8 hectare development site would have no affordable housing and would be made up of 19 four-bedroom detached, 31 three-bedroom detached, 35 three-bedroom semi-detached, 18 three-bedroom terraces, and five two-bedroom terraces.

Each home will have two car parking spaces – amounting to 216 spaces.

The main point that residents took issue with when looking at the plans, however, was the access point.

The plans show that the site will have one road in and out onto Chester Road for residents of the 108 homes, using almost the same access road as the current one for the college.

It is one concern that is likely to appear on most of the feedback forms that the developers receive, but the Guardian was told it is unlikely to be changed.

Scott Ashall, land director for Lane End Developments, said: “Access to a site is something that is designed and planned carefully through traffic surveys. Whilst we will listen to feedback from the residents and take comments into account before submitting the planning application, access is something that is unlikely to change.

“It may be that it will be looked at when the planning application goes in and highways may have some things to change as they often do, but we believe that this is the best access point from the surveys we’ve done.

“It’s practically the same access road that the college used and we believe that there will be less traffic movements for the housing development than there was for the college.”

Excessive traffic through the village has become a common complaint in Hartford since houses began to sell on the large Redrow development of more than 600 homes.

Now residents feel that another 108 homes off Chester Road will make the roads unbearable.

David Richards, who has lived in Hartford 50 years, said: “The village has more than doubled in size since we moved here but we still don’t have any amenities. The village used to support itself. There was a college and there were jobs and apprenticeships at ICI and it jus worked as a community.

“It just doesn’t work anymore because everyone is out for themselves and the community doesn’t get thought of. They build houses for people who have to get jobs out of the area, so everyone is in their cars, and the roads cannot cope.

“It’s definitely the traffic problems that anger people the most. The village’s roads just cannot cope with this amount of new houses.

“We just feel absolutely powerless because whatever we say, the decision is not going to change. Nobody has considered the village or the people in it up until now, so why would they suddenly start to listen?”

Anyone who could not make it to the event last night can give their views to the developer by emailing info@laneend.org

A Lane End Development representative confirmed that the planning application is due to be submitted to the council in around two weeks.