A PETITION signed by more than 1,000 Ribble Valley residents voicing opposition to excessive house building in the bor-ough has been presented to the House of Commons.

Nigel Evans, who represents the area at Westminster, handed over the document which highlights the scale of unrest among residents.

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The petition declares that small rural towns and villages are ‘under siege from housing developers seeking to build excessive numbers of homes to en-courage people to migrate from industrial towns and cities to rural commun-ities’.

The presentation comes after a plan for 275 homes in Waddington Road, Cl-itheroe, moved one step closer to being given the green light last month.

A plan for 220 homes in Wilworth Lane and Black-burn Road in Longridge was rejected at the same borough council meeting.

Mr Evans said: “I have long argued against the current situation surroun-ding large-scale housing developments.

“I do not believe that the Government intended to arrive at a situation where local authorities would feel unable to say no to developers without a Core Strategy in place but that is where we are.

Tedd Walmsley, a mem-ber of the Save Longridge Action Group, said: “He (Nigel Evans) has been a strong voice in Westm-inster in arguing that wh-ile houses need to be built, that development should happen in towns where it’s needed.”