VILLAGERS clamoured around council offices to demand their say about a 'tidal wave' of housing proposals.

Sutton Courtenay residents marched to Vale of White Horse District Council in Milton Park yesterday, thrusting protest signs into the air and presenting a petition listing their pleas.

They want planners to consider the cumulative impact of approved and proposed applications, which include 200 homes in Hobbyhorse Lane, 354 in Harwell Road, 93 and 195-home estates in Appleford Road and an industrial warehouse with more than 830 car and lorry parking spaces.

Nicholas Richardson, 76, described his home of 40 years as 'a village under siege'.

He said: "It is unacceptable; absolutely crazy. It was a shock having all the applications come at once."

Villager Rita Twiston Davies said the housing will bring 'swathes' of people who will struggle to integrate, and said the number of houses in the village would more than double if the plans went ahead.

She added: "It's ludicrous. It's almost as if the district council is saying "we don't care about you, all we care about is money". It's becoming a banana republic which is a real shame."

She was concerned about a strategic site of 200 houses next to a landfill site in the village, which she said smells 'appalling'.

Commenting on the site, fellow villager David McKenzie added: "It is ridiculous and unsuitable to build family houses next to a landfill site. There are regularly plagues of rats and flies in the area - it's a serious risk to health.

"We don't have a planning system: we have a joke."

The Environmental Agency is yet to assess the proposal site, despite it being one year since the application was submitted, as it said it was 'unable' due to 'increased workload'.

Residents have since paid for their own experts to report back, and believe there could be a large amount of methane gas in the ground.

They want the council to hault the application process until they have detailed reports.

Villager Anne Morgan-Smith, of campaign group Sutton Courtenay Action, said they have received around 350 signatures in the past week on their petition demanding a 'fair deal'.

For more information or to sign, click here.

Speaking at the village hall, she warned her neighbours there is 'a tidal wave of development coming our way'.

Sutton Courtenay county councillor Richard Webber, who was among about 150 walkers, said: "They have made a terrible mess of some villages in the county. We are in desperate need of a grand county plan for building houses. This place has had enough."

He told villagers he estimated the district council could reap between £7m and £12m from the New Homes Bonus government scheme if the plans go ahead.

Council leader Matthew Barber, who met residents yesterday at the village hall, later disputed this.

He added: "They have some serious concerns about specific planning applications as well as some understandable worries about the infrastructure needed to support housing on the village more generally.

"I look forward to working with the parish council and the neighbourhood plan group as with other parishes in the district to address their concerns."

Ed Vaizey was also expected to attend the march but dropped out last minute.

His spokeswoman told the Oxford Mail it was a ‘private matter’ before hanging up the phone.

Roger Freedman, of developer London Regeneration which is hoping to build the 354-home site, said: “The application we have includes explicit delivery of significant additional and enhanced services and improvements. Not only for the proposed development but for the whole of the community.”

He said these include leisure areas, open green space, a surgery, a shop with a pharmacy, a community trust and a community bus service.

He added: “Whilst we know that nobody likes change on their doorstep and that this would be a major development in the area, it has been crafted to the context of the area socially, economically and environmentally such that it would bring a wealth of benefits and services to the village.”

Thames Water is looking at overhauling the village’s sewer system, which could see the High Street closed for 22 weeks.