THREE-hundred residents gathered in Wantage market place to find out what their parliamentary candidates propose to could do about controversial unwanted housing developments.

All five candidates for the Wantage constituency spoke at the rally on Sunday(12.04) morning.

The event was organised by Julie Mabberley, chairwoman of Wantage and Grove Campaign Group for sustainable development, who also gave a speech.

About 5,500 homes are due to be built in Wantage and Grove over the next 15 years in major estates such as the 2,500-home Grove airfield and 1,500-home Crab Hill developments.

The campaign group is calling for more funding for school places, road improvements and local amenities from developers.

Ms Mabberley, of Charlton, said: “The aim of the day was to highlight planning issues locally and nationally to our parliamentary candidates and see if any of them were planning to support us.”.

The candidates are Lib Dem candidate Alex Meredith, Conservative Ed Vaizey, UKIP’s Lee Upcraft, the Green Party’s Kate Prendergast and Labour’s Stephen Webb.

The keynote speaker for the day was former Times economic editor Peter Jay, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Helen Marshall also gave a talk.

SOME 300 residents gathered in Wantage market place to find out what their parliamentary candidates could do about unwanted housing developments.

All five candidates for the Wantage constituency spoke at the rally on Sunday(12.04) morning.

The event was organised by Julie Mabberley, chairwoman of Wantage and Grove Campaign Group for sustainable development, who also gave a speech.

About 5,500 homes are due to be built in Wantage and Grove over the next 15 years in major estates such as the 2,500-home Grove Airfield estate and 1,500-home Crab Hill.

The campaign group is calling for more funding for school places, road improvements and local amenities from developers.

Ms Mabberley, of Charlton, said: “The aim of the day was to highlight planning issues locally and nationally to our parliamentary candidates and see if any of them were planning to support us.”

The others were Lib Dem candidate Alex Meredith, UKIP’s Lee Upcraft, the Green Party’s Kate Prendergast and Labour’s Stephen Webb.

The keynote speaker for the day was former Times economic editor Peter Jay, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Helen Marshall also gave a talk.