VILLAGERS are urging neighbours, conservationists and wildlife lovers to help them fight plans for new houses in Barnton.

Residents of Mond Street are battling new proposals for three homes on land which currently forms part of their gardens.

The plans are for a site in Nursery Road, at the back of 57 to 71 Mond Street, which was owned by Brunner Mond until it was sold to a property developer in 2002.

Mond Street residents had paid rent on the land to Brunner Mond for decades so they could extend their gardens.

When the land was sold in 2002 they were never given the option to buy it.

They only found out it had been sold when they were notified of plans for four three-storey town houses in 2003, which they successfully campaigned against, collecting 200 signatures against the development.

Andy Johnson, a former ICI worker who has lived in Mond Street with his wife Mary for 38 years, said: “It was thrown out last time on the grounds of highways and conservation, and nothing has changed.”

He added: “Mary’s life is the garden.

“When we first got the letter and found out ICI had sold the land we must have been paying ground rent for 30 years, and they hadn’t got the decency to give us the option of buying it.”

Andy and Mary are both members of the RSPB and are involved in counting the different species of birds that use their garden, which backs on to Nursery Woods.

The area is also frequented by badgers and foxes.

Fellow Mond Street resident Jonathan Wills, a Barnton parish councillor, is concerned about how near the development is to the woods and the Trent and Mersey Canal.

“The canal is a conservation area, what they call a natural semi-ancient woodland – it was classified as a grade A site of biological interest,” he said.

“It will have an adverse effect on the conservation area and anyone walking along the canal or in the woods.”

Residents are also concerned about the impact of the development on parking in the area and on congestion near Nursery Road Recreation Ground, as well as the new houses being out of character with the Victorian character of the area. For more information email Clr Wills on jdwills@hotmail.com.