Despite these strong objections, leading councillors have given the initial design for 30 new homes on Mayfield Road, Huntingdon, the thumbs-up at a meeting of Huntingdonshire District Council's Cabinet.
Concerns were raised by Huntingdon Town Council and residents that the proposed development will be built on 1.85 acres (0.75 hectares) of grassland currently used by dog walkers and for children playing.

Huntingdon Town Clerk Karen Cameron said: "That's a piece of green space that the council would like to see preserved. No one wants to get in the way of that type of development.

"But it also felt the design proposals weren't in keeping with the character of the surrounding properties."
Objections were also made by the town council and Hartford Infant School that with the street already containing the school, Huntingdon Olympic Gym and St John Ambulance, the proposed new homes would cause traffic congestion.

Mrs Cameron added: "There are concerns about highway safety and traffic in the area because Huntingdon Olympic Gym is planning a half a million pound redevelopment and then followed by an extension where there will be 200 new car parking spaces, so they're focusing on increased use of the facility.

"St John Ambulance are also planning an extension. Previously their headquarters have been in Cambridge, but operations are shifting to Huntingdon, so they project a lot more activity at that site.
"With that and a history of parking and traffic problems along there, with parents dropping their children off, members are concerned that it would be too much traffic and over development to introduce 30 more houses."

However, leader of the district council Cllr Ian Bates explained that this was very early stages and, with a planning application having not yet been submitted, that it was too soon to consider these concerns.
He said: "All local planning authorities are being encouraged by the Government to build sustainable communities. The idea is to have more people using public transport, walking and cycling.

"To do that they need to be close to the facilities, and that will direct them to our market towns and larger villages. So we are encouraged to build in town centre areas. This proposal is saying this is the sort of thing we would like to see as we all know affordable housing is required within the district.

"When we were doing the Oxmoor action plan one of the things which came out of that was that that part of Huntingdon has got a considerable amount of green space. You need to put that bigger picture together."