A POSTER campaign has been launched by a group of 180 residents and traders who are angry at plans to build more than 700 houses on the Cartmel peninsula.

Grange and District Action Group (GADAG) has hit out at the Land Allocations Development Plan produced by South Lakeland District Council, saying the proposals were ‘ill-considered, excessive and unsustainable’.

Planners identified that around 730 houses would need to be built in Grange, Allithwaite, Flookburgh, Cartmel and Cark by 2025.

But members of the group said a 30 per cent increase in traffic would damage tourism, and said their concerns about a lack of school places, inadequate drainage, loss of open spaces between settlements, and non-existent parking, had fallen on deaf ears.

Hearings at an inquiry into the plan were suspended in November of last year so a ‘number of issues’ could be looked at, but are set to resume next month.

Andy Mortimer from GADAG said: “The key issue is SLDC has claimed the development is moderate; Grange has 2,000 houses at the moment so another 500 is a 25 per cent increase. We think that is significant and not moderate.

“There are going to be 1,000 extra vehicles coming through one road in and out of Grange. “The council has ack-nowledged that there is already a problem with town centre congestion but we are not convinced that they have come back with any meaningful changes.”

Posters showing mock post-cards with slogans including ‘Welcome to Grange-over-Houses’ and ‘Holiday Greetings from Grange-over-Traffic’ have been distributed around the town. “What we are opposed to is the overwhelming ribbon development that is going to run right the way through Grange,” added Mr Mortimer.

Coun Tom Harvey, leader of Grange Town Council, said: “We share pretty much the same views as GADAG and believe the cumulation of traffic will have an adverse impact.

A spokesman for SLDC said: “Land allocations in South Lakeland are being considered by an independent examination. This is currently suspended and the council has asked for it to resume next month.

“A schedule of proposed main modifications documents is available for the public to view and download from south lakeland.gov.uk. Members of the public can inspect the documents until Monday, May 6, at South Lakeland House in Kendal, Ulverston Town Hall and local libraries at Arnside, Grange-over-Sands, Kendal, Kirkby Lonsdale, Milnthorpe and Ulverston.”