A MASSIVE new housing estate is planned for a Ryedale town - but locals fear the proposals are for too many homes and it could turn into a "mini Leeds".

Redrow Homes has applied for outline planning permission to build 204 homes on 5.6 hectares of agricultural land between Scarborough Road and Norton Grove Industrial Estate on the north-east side of Norton. Of the houses, 80 would be affordable. Access would be along Scarborough Road.

In notes to the planning committee, case officer Paul Simpson wrote that there was "considerable doubt" whether the site was superior to other previously developed, or brownfield, areas in terms of accessibility to jobs, shops and services, capacity of infrastructure, for example school places for children, building communities and environmental concerns. Also, the Planning Housing Provision for Malton and Norton up to September 2006 is for 108, so if the proposal was given the green light it would result in a significant oversupply of new homes.

The outstanding provision could be met by at least two brownfield sites in the town - the former clothing factory and the former Travis Perkins site.

But Mr Simpson said that other brownfield sites would not be able to deliver on the scale that the site in question could.

Ryedale MP John Greenway said: "The fact of the matter is that we need more homes without a doubt."

Norton town councillor Ann Scott, whose home at Parliament Avenue, Norton, is next to the site, said: "I think it's a lot of houses which will generate a lot of traffic and put pressure on already near-full local schools. I think 204 homes is too many."

Retired North Yorkshire ambulance crewman Ivan Highmoor, of Parliament Avenue, Norton, said: "It will be like a mini-Leeds. It'll be a sad loss of green fields for Norton, especially for dog owners like myself who use them for exercise.

"Where's the traffic going to go? If there's 200 odd houses then you can double it to work out the amount of cars. Will Norton be able to take it?"

But Edmund Stone, of Arbour Way, Norton, said he was glad that the proposals included affordable homes. "I understand that the Housing Association will take 80 of them and I think that's a good thing," he said.

The plans were recommended for approval at the committee meeting on Tuesday.

Updated: 10:30 Thursday, January 08, 2004