RESIDENTS planning a protest against new homes in Culham have said the area won’t be able to cope with thousands of extra people.

A rally will be held on the Culham village green tomorrow from 3pm against South Oxfordshire District Council’s plan to build 3,500 houses on green belt land nearby.

Villagers will come dressed in green with ribbons, posters and banners and are planning to join together in formation to spell out the word ‘no’.

The protest comes after the cabinet of the district council approved the latest draft of its local plan, which outlines new developments, including the Culham homes, up to 2033.

Councillors say that the homes near the science park, south of Abingdon, are needed to satisfy the area’s growing housing need.

Tobias Pejkovic, of the Save Culham Green Belt group, said: “With 8,400 projected new residents, this is a development larger than Wallingford but in a third of the space.

“It’s an area surrounded by the river Thames on three sides and a railway on the other.

“The new town in Culham would only have the A415, no ring road and a bridge crossing that we know little about.

“The flood of traffic would be huge. The A415 is at its maximum capacity already with queues every day.

“There’s no shop in the village, one pub and one primary school. It’s not set up for this amount of people.

SODC is planning to build a new river crossing between Didcot and Culham to relieve pressure on existing infrastructure.

After concerns raised by Historic England, the council has now expanded the amount of land set aside for the road.