RESIDENTS are protesting over developers' plans for new homes which they claim could double the size of their village near Wallingford.

Two applications for developments have been submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council, one for 150 homes and another for 80 homes.

Bloor Homes and Hallam Land Management have submitted plans for 150 homes east of Benson Lane, while

Exilarch Foundation and Lightwood Strategic have put forward plans for 80 new homes in Old Reading Road.

This would include 40 per cent affordable housing, open space, a community hall, and enhanced facilities including a sports pitch and car parking for Crowmarsh Gifford Primary School.

But residents are opposing the plans, claiming it will lead to over-development of the village.

Father-of-two Philip Tremayne, 64, who lives with wife Judith, is leading opposition to the proposals and a public meeting will be held at Crowmarsh Primary School on Tuesday at 7pm.

The offshore oil and gas process engineer, who lives in the village with daughter Kate, 17, and son Luke, 15, said he believed if the developments were approved it would eventually lead to the village doubling in size.

He said: "If these plans are granted, then it won't be long before Crowmarsh doubles in size - at the moment there are about 450 homes here.

"We know Crowmarsh has to take its share of homes but this would be too many homes all at once and would

put pressure on schools, traffic and infrastructure.

"There was an application for new homes about six years ago which was turned down and it's frustrating that developers are now back."

Mr Tremayne said if some new homes could be built on the site of the burnt-out South Oxfordshire District Council headquarters, which was damaged in an arson attack in January 2015 and has remained empty since, then new housing in the village could be better spread out."

A poster for the meeting said there would be 'a discussion on the housing development prospects for Crowmarsh Gifford, where the new houses should be and how many we, as a community, can cope with.'

Invitations have been sent to local councillors, representatives of the primary school and the Council for the Protection of Rural England.

Speakers will address the current planning system and how it fails villages such as Crowmarsh, the current developer proposals, the need to conserve fertile greenfield land and to redevelop brownfield sites, and sensible access to the proposed housing developments.

The poster added: "Our excellent school is important to us but the problems of expanding class numbers need to be talked through.

"There will be ample opportunity for villagers to question the speakers and to comment on the development prospects."

No one from Bloor Homes and Hallam Land Management or Exilarch Foundation and Lightwood Strategic has yet commented.