Plans for a 4,000-home 'garden village' in Nottinghamshire has left people living near the proposed site worried that their villages could be 'eaten up'.
Of these 4,000 homes, 590 are expected to be delivered by 2038, in line with Bassetlaw District Council's recently extended local plan.
Residents in the village of Ranby, near Retford, told Lincolnshire Live they are concerned about the potential impact of the Bassetlaw Garden Village, a proposed housing development that will see 4,000 homes built by the A1/A57 beyond 2038.
Resident Sarah Emblen, 56, said the need for more housing had to be balanced against the area's infrastructure.
She said: "I know we need quite a lot more houses but we need doctors and dentists, too.
"I'm quite concerned about it because it's going to be massive.
"The schools are bursting anyway in Retford, so that infrastructure will need to be there.
"They are going to have put facilities in there, like shops and schools, but they'll also be used by the people who'll be moving in there."
She added: "It could affect our lives here, but it depends how close it comes.
"It's a lovely little village and I don't think any of us would want it to become part of another, bigger village.
"It could quite easily be eaten up."
Sharon McCusker, 63, a retiree living in the village, said the effects of the village being built were going to be "horrendous."
"It's going to create a lot more traffic," she said.
"It's going to be horrendous.
"If we have no infrastructure, I don't know how all these extra people can be supported.
"I have to travel all the way to Blyton, on the other side of Gainsborough, just to get seen by a dentist.
"I know they've got to do all this building, but it's already ridiculous trying to get in and out of Retford from here."
Mrs McCusker also expressed concern about how the A1 and the surrounding roads would handle an increase in traffic.
She said: "We've just got that one road, and if anything happens on there, that's it.
"You've then got to go right down the A1 to try and get around or up the A1 to try and get in.
"We've just not got the roads. It's going to snarl them up.
"If we've got another village coming with 600 plus homes, then where is all the traffic going to go?
"It's not good news."
But not everyone is entirely opposed.
John Hodgkinson, 75, said the proposed green village would ultimately be a good thing for the area.
He said: "Ranby has good travel connections already, and people from the new village will presumably go shopping locally in Retford.
"But I understand they'll be quite self-contained.
"We don't have a shop in the village, so we could go shopping there - if the shop's any good.
"It'd be closer than going to Retford or Worksop."
His wife, Jenny, said new homes had to be "built somewhere".
She said: "Purely selfishly, it's not too close to us currently, so I don't think it will affect us too directly.
"I understand we've got to have new housing, and it's got to go somewhere.
"It'll bring more young people into the area."
Mr Hodgkinson added that rumoured plans for new homes in Ranby were also a positive sign.
He said: "I think it's a good idea.
"For a long time, nothing was allowed to be built for residential purposes in the village, but that means that the village eventually starts dying off a little bit.
"It's not a young village."
The garden village was unveiled alongside the draft local plan back in February, 2020.
Residents at the time told Lincolnshire Live they feared the destructive impact the development would have on local wildlife.
Cllr Jo White, Cabinet Member for Regeneration at Bassetlaw District Council, said they appreciated and understood the concerns of residents on the growth and development of the Garden Village.
“Development of the Garden Village is expected to start in 2032 and will last for around 30 years," she said.
"The ethos of a Garden Village is for it to be a self-contained community which will have its own services and amenities, including new primary and secondary schools, a healthcare centre, employment area and green spaces, among other facilities.
“It will have its own infrastructure that caters for new bus routes, cycle lanes and rail travel, in addition to cars.
"It will also contribute to improving the surrounding infrastructure over the lifetime of the development of the Garden Village, which will be achieved in phases.
"Over recent years there have been many public consultations on the Garden Village and many submissions have been made by the public.
"It’s important that all the issues that are raised must be responded to and I welcome that they will be considered by the Independent Planning Inspector when the Local Plan is at the Examination stage later this year.”
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