CONCERNS a 200-home development could bring Faringdon’s saturated services to breaking point were raised over the weekend.

Residents were invited to consultation events across the area to find out more about plans to build the estate between Faringdon and Great Coxwell Road.

Cheltenham-based SGR Faringdon wants to include various green initiatives in the scheme, but that wasn’t enough to sweeten the deal for locals.

Resident Tony White said: “We’re already suffering from the bussing in of people from outlying areas.

“Faringdon community college is full, the infant school is full, and I’m sure the junior school is probably full as well.

“Unless the developers are prepared to do something about that, we are going to struggle.”

He was also concerned about discrepancies between accounts from staff at the consultation.

He said: “One of them said the social housing was going to be pepper-potted around, and another said it was going to be in one cluster, and act as a buffer for the A420.

“Now that sounds all very well for the people in the non-social houses, but what about the people who have to live there?”

Dr Evelyne Godfrey, an archaeologist, travelled from nearby Uffington to raise her concerns. She said: “This is an area of archaeological interest.

“Next door to this site you have one of only two remaining medieval Tithe barns in Britain, and I’m worried about the amount of work they have done to protect this.”

Another resident, who did not want to give her name, said: “We’re concerned about where all these people are going to work once they get here, and the impact on schools and the sewage network.”

While the Reverend David Williams, parish priest of Great Coxwell, would not comment on the plans, he said: “It was very well-attended, quite crowded at points..”

SGR’s Rob Bolton said turnout at the consultation sessions in Faringdon and Great Coxwell had been good.

He said: “People’s views are very different between Great Coxwell, where they are worried this could be the first of many things which merge the two places, and Faringdon where people are worried about use of infrastructure.

“Generally the master plan is quite well-liked, even though it’s just the initial designs. Surprisingly, people haven’t been as concerned about the loss of green space as you would think, but they did talk about traffic problems on the A420.”