RESIDENTS of a Kendal housing estate are gearing up for another planning fight after a property developer unveiled plans to build three apartment blocks in their neighbourhood, writes Mikes Addison.

Natland-based Merewood Homes wants to construct the three, four and five-storey blocks to accommodate 65

apartments with car parking space for 95 vehicles on 0.74 hectares of land behind the Asda superstore at The Oaks, off Oxenholme Road.

People living on the estate are already opposing plans for industrial units on five hectares of land at Burton Road/Oxenholme Road, which they have dubbed the "strawberry fields" site.

They recently failed in a campaign to prevent town houses and a block of flats being built on the estate.

Ron Nichols, of Whinlatter Drive, said everyone he had spoken to on the estate was "hostile" to the application but said there was a sense of resignation because they had failed in their last planning fight.

"I think it's going to spoil the character of the whole place," said Mr Nichols.

"It's going to look like Peckham.

"This application has come at a bad time because most of us are up-in-arms about the strawberry fields site.

Most of us are engaged and geared up to oppose that proposal."

Robert Casson, also of Whinlatter Drive, said that when he moved in six months ago he had been given the impression that the land earmarked for the apartments was for houses.

He said that as a father of two young children he was concerned about the amount of traffic that the apartments would generate.

And Peter Baister said his main concern was the 95 parking places.

"That is going to knock a hole in a nice quiet estate," he said.

South Lakeland District Council's head of development control Peter Ridgway said Merewood had commissioned architects to prepare a modern approach to the architectural detailing which reflected the Crosby scheme at Sande Aire House in the centre of Kendal.

Mr Ridgway said he was expecting local residents to complain about the increase in density and concerns had already been expressed about whether the Oxenholme Road junction would be able to cope with the increase in traffic.

Work on The Oaks started in 1998 and there was originally planning approval for 123 homes on the site.

Thirty town houses and apartments are under construction.

The new application replaces plans for flats, terraces and semis for that corner of the site.

Ironically, when The Oaks planning application was submitted residents on Oxenholme Road objected on the grounds of traffic, loss of view and potential fall in property prices.

No-one from Merewood Homes wanted to comment about the latest application.

On Monday night Kendal town councillors recommended the apartments plan for refusal, because of concerns about design, height and scale; the loss of a greenfield site; and fears that nearby roads would not be able to cope with the volume of traffic generated, 95 parking spaces having been set aside for the flats.