A group of angry residents in Halebank, an English village with a population of just 2,000 residents, submitted a proposal to turn socialite Catherine Hesketh's 4-story London mansion into a sheep museum to protest a recently approved proposal to turn thousands of acres of Hesketh family-owned land into a 500-house development on the village's edge.
"The community is not opposed to new housing to meet local needs, but these plans would literally double the size of a village that has limited infrastructure and very poor road connectivity to the rest of Halton Borough," Deputy Chair of the Parish Council John Anderton told Runcorn and Widnes World.
"The community has reached out to Catherine Hesketh and the family for dialogue to see whether we can find a reasonable and mutually agreeable compromise, but we have been completely ignored," Anderton added.
The Friends of Halebank campaign group, made up of local residents, are protesting the Hesketh family's approved proposal because the development will have a 'devastating effect' on local farming businesses, including one that raises rare breed sheep on a small plot that will soon be surrounded by the new housing, Runcorn and Widnes World reported.
Although the application to turn Hesketh's home into a sheep museum is not likely to succeed, the group said they submitted it to force a dialogue.
"It's a shame that it has come to this, but maybe she will now understand what it's like for someone living 200 miles away to submit a planning application that could dramatically change the place you call home," Terry Colquitt, spokesperson for the Friends of Halebank, added.
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