Village that inspired Camberwick Green facing housing plans that will ‘ruin’ idyllic countryside

Camberwick Green’s beloved residents Windy Miller and Dr Mopp helped defend the fictional village’s idyllic way of life each week when the TV show aired in the 1960s.

But now the real life residents of the village thought to have inspired the children’s stop-motion classic are facing their own domestic crisis, warning that housebuilding plans for the area will “ruin the countryside”.

Taylor Wimpey, the house developer, has plans to construct hundreds of new homes in and around the historic village of Wivelsfield Green, which currently has a population of under 3,000.

The No To WivelsTown campaign group has warned that recent developments have already left local services overburdened, and further construction will destroy their village, which is believed to have inspired Gordon Murray’s 1966 TV series.

Locals have dressed as Camberwick Green characters, including Windy Miller, who ran the windmill, Mickey Murphy the baker, and Mrs Cobbit the flower seller, to protest the perceived threat to their village way of life.

Episodes of the show, which was the first children’s programme in colour, lasted 15 minutes and opened with a music box from which a different villager, from the policeman to the postman, would emerge before being followed around Camberwick Green.

The series was followed by Trumpton, believed to be inspired by Plumpton near Wivelsfield, and Chigley, believed to be inspired by the nearby Chailey.

Lewes District Councillor and campaigner Sue Morris believes the threat ultimately comes from the Government’s push for new homes, telling The Telegraph: “We need to try and persuade Angela Rayner that ruining the countryside is not the answer to the housing shortage.

“The government should be implementing more thoughtful planning policies.”

Ms Rayner launched the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which set stringent housing targets to meet Sir Keir Starmer’s commitment to build 1.5 million new homes.

Labour has pushed to build on poor quality “grey belt” land located in the green belt, and will allow areas to be designated “grey belt” despite any “encroachment of the countryside”.

In Wivelsfield Green, Taylor Wimpey is set to build 170 new homes south of the village hall, and developer Cala has secured permission to construct a further 96.  Last year, Elvia Homes began construction on 45 homes in the area.

Concern services will be overwhelmed

There are concerns that the increasing size of the village, which some fear will agglomerate into an unappealing town, will overwhelm local services already affected by previous developments.

Ms Morris said: “The local schools are full, doctors are having to be sought further and further afield, the area is flooding more, traffic has gone up 980 per cent in 11 years.

“Footpaths are disappearing into housing estates, whilst the beautiful landscape is being torn up by characterless and unaffordable houses and estates.”

The No To WivelsTown campaign group will lobby against the planning application submitted by Taylor Wimpey to try and “fight against the carnage that developers are reeking in the village”.

Taylor Wimpey said that it had put forward a “positive proposal”, and that some of the private land purchased by the developer would be opened up as a public green space.

A Taylor Wimpey spokesman said: “We have come forward with a positive offer to the local community to deliver publicly accessible open space on land that the Wivelsfield Neighbourhood Plan has identified as key to retaining open views to the south of Green Road.

“At present, this land remains in private ownership and is inaccessible to the public. Under our proposals, the land, amounting to some 70 per cent of our site, would be secured in perpetuity as public open space for members of the local community to enjoy.”

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel