AM joins fight against homes plan.

OPPOSITION has mounted against massive plans to build 1,700 homes in Bodelwyddan, doubling the size of the village.

Earlier this week, North Wales AM Janet Ryder marched with community campaigners fighting against Denbighshire's Local Development Plan.

A primary school, industrial parks, shops and service areas, are in the pipeline. A new road access off the A55 will also allow the area to cope with a predicted population growth over the next 15 years, under the LDP. It means around 6,800 more residents will eventually be able to find homes in the area - making it bigger than many towns in North Wales.

Plaid Cymru AM, Ms Ryder joined more than 100 local people in a walk across fields at Bodelwyddan which are earmarked for housing developments.

She said: "Building on fertile green fields like these is unacceptable. If this part of Wales does not have very careful planning in the coming round of LDPs, we're going to see a ribbon of commuter estates and dormitory villages created along the A55 and A483 corridors. This has nothing to do with creating communities with a sustainable future and local people are right to fight this."

The Bodelwyddan Development Action Group, who organised the protest, also held a mass meeting last week. Twenty-six hectares of employment land has been put forward to remedy Bodelwyddan's "weak economic growth".

The council, which started a consultation process this month, say Bodelwyddan has building and development needs and lacks jobs, recreational space and community facilities.