BUDGE up a bit everyone, we need to make some room for thousands more families. Acres of countryside around Lancaster could soon disappear as Lancaster City Council look for land to build new homes on - and the target they have set themselves tops the 3,000 houses mark. According to the Lancashire Structure Plan, the city council must find sites for 8,300 homes before 2006.

Work to reach that goal started in 1991 but, despite the fact that there are already houses planned and sites allocated, they are still more than 3,000 short of the mark and that means 310 acres of land must be located.

In a joint statement, councillors Ian Barker, chairman of the housing policy committee, and Eileen Blamire, chairman of the planning committee, explained the need for the land and admitted that it will mean using some of the surrounding countryside.

They said: "It is inevitable that we will have to expand the boundaries of the existing urban areas. Clearly this will have to be done in a sensitive way. Whatever sites are chosen there is bound to be controversy.

"We believe we should do as much as we can to re-use existing redundant buildings or to build on 'brown-field' sites which need reclamation.

"However, many of the opportunities to do this have already been used. It is unrealistic to expect more than a modest proportion of our future needs to be met in this way.

"This is a responsibility that we cannot duck. We need to provide for decent homes for our citizens into the next century."

It is estimated that 20 per cent of the new homes will be in Carnforth and the villages north of the city while the rest will be concentrated in the urban area running from Heysham to Lancaster.

The new housing developments will be built close to public transport links or be within walking or cycling range of the city centre. A draft plan and public consultation document will be published later in the year.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.