TIME is ticking to try to block a controversial housing development.

Residents are furious about the proposed scheme for 152 houses on the site of the now defunct Headlands Comprehensive School.

Worries about traffic and flooding have set alarm bells ringing for residents like the Godwins in Marston Road, whose semi-detatched home was flooded in June 2007 – causing £74,000 of damage.

They are planning to lodge an objection to the scheme, and they and other residents have until March 4 to make their voices heard.

Mum Niki Godwin, 44, said: “When we got flooded out, the water came off Headlands School.

“There’s the noise levels, the extra traffic, and obviously whether it’ll solve the flooding issue or make it worse.

“I’d rather it wasn’t built on. It gets a lot of use on that field for football. It’s a nice patch of greenery in the area.”

Husband John said: “In July 2007, it was an accumulation of rain over the field. Over a certain period of time, rain came in really heavily. It just came off field, through back gardens and into the house.

“There was a plan in 2008 which got put on hold.

“The shameful thing is there’s a nice sports facility on that site, a lovely bit of green that’s used every weekend.

“Just leave it alone.

“There’s a lot of unrest about it. There’s quite an uproar about it.”

Coun Paul Findlow (Con, St Philips), said he was prepared to fight the plans.

He said: “I’m 100 per cent against it, to be quite honest.

“If there’s substantial flooding I don’t think it can cope.

“There’s been flooding around that area before, and I’m not convinced that building these would solve the problem. It might make it worse.

“And there’s the traffic too. We’ve already got enough problems with the rat run at Queensfield and Hyde Road. It’ll exacerbate that.

“Personally I’d still like to see it left as a green space for sports.”

He said flooding worries were particularly acute because there is an electrical substation in nearby Headland Road.

The plan had originally been to build more than 200 houses on the site, but developers have scaled back the proposals.

To have your say on the proposals, write to the Planning Department, Wat Tyler Houser, Beckhampton Street, Wilts, SN1 2JH.

No date has yet been set for the plans to come before the council’s planning committee.