A PLANNING committee decision on whether a housing development at Carlett Park should go ahead has been deferred after residents objected.

Local concerns about the potential build-up of traffic through Eastham's medieval village if the development was approved were voiced at the committee meeting last Thursday.

A spokesperson for the council's planning committee said that the decision had been deferred to give them time to visit the village and see the possible problem for themselves. A date for the visit is due to be announced this week.

The proposed development of 120 houses is part of a massive regeneration of the vacant parts of Wirral Metropolitan College's Carlett Park site based in Eastham's Green Belt.

The money raised from the sale of the houses would be invested into Wirral Met education.

The proposed development plans provide for a new set of traffic signals to aid access to the site at the junction of the present entrance off the A41.

But cars travelling towards Bromborough and Birkenhead will not be allowed to turn right into the college site. Instead a new mini-roundabout at the junction by the Hooton Arms on Eastham Village Road will be built to allow access through the village.

Marjorie Hall, a resident and chair of the Eastham Village preservation association, is concerned for the safety of pedestrians in the village.

Mrs Hall said: "We have primary school children in and out of school and elderly people crossing. The village is already used as a short cut to avoid the A41 traffic lights and also to get to Vauxhalls and the other industries on the Manchester Ship Canal land."

A 320-name petition has already been handed into the planning committee. And the association is calling for the traffic lights on the A41 to allow cars to turn right into the development.

They also want a narrowing of the access road into Eastham Village with restrictions to stop vehicles using the short cut.

Mrs Hall added: "They are obviously going to do something on the site. We don't either object or agree to it but it just seems to be a foregone conclusion."

Wirral South MP Ben Chapman and college principal Ray Dowd unveiled the plans last December as a way to help fund the future of the college and further education on Wirral.

Ben Chapman said: "I have taken up my constituent's concerns with both Wirral Borough Council and Wirral Metropolitan College.

"I am given to understand by principal Ray Dowd that Wirral Met are giving careful consideration to the points put to them last week."