AN angry Ribble Valley resident says time has come to call a halt to housebuilding in his village after plans were unveiled to expand three schools to cope with the influx of new families.

Denis Barnes, 49, of George Street, Whalley, claims the village is stretched to breaking point and can't cope with any more new houses. He has circulated a questionnaire to households asking for views.

More than 800 houses have been built at the former Calderstones and Brockhall Hospitals in recent years, while a development in nearby Barrow nearly doubled the size of the village.

Now Whalley Primary School and St Mary's RC and St Leonard's CE Primary Schools in nearby Langho are to get two new classrooms each to cope with rising pupil numbers. Mr Barnes said: "It's getting ridiculous. We don't have the facilities to cope. The village school and medical centre are stretched to capacity.

"Vehicles travelling along Church Lane to Whalley Primary School in the mornings have to mount the pavement to pass each other.

"Developers are building luxury homes costing hundreds of thousands of pounds that local young people cannot afford to live in and village life is being ruined."

Whalley residents formed an action group to fight the development of the Calderstones Hospital site, when plans were unveiled in 1996 to build 1,000 houses. A scaled-down scheme was eventually given the go-ahead. Fifty-one houses have been built, with 162 under completion and 105 yet to be built. Developer Gerald Hitman found himself at loggerheads with Langho and Billington residents over his revamp of the former hospital site at Brockhall, where hundreds of executive homes have been built over recent years.

Whalley councillor Joyce Holgate said: "The infrastructure to cope with this huge influx of people just isn't there. There are traffic problems throughout the village, the schools are full and the GP surgery is full. All of this should have been thought of before building started. The village has reached its peak in development and can't take any more."

Brian Beresford, head teacher at Whalley Primary School, said in the five years he had been at the school pupil numbers had risen from 185 to 258. He said: "There is an incredible demand. We have far exceeded our admissions numbers."

The pupil roll at St Mary's is 221, 19 over its admission figure of 202, while intake at St Leonard's looks set to rise from 208 to 268.

Ribble Valley Council chief planning officer Stuart Bailey said: "We have reviewed our guidance about housing development and no more greenfield development will be allowed. We have more than enough houses to meet our quota and any new substantial application is likely to meet with significant resistance."