MEMBERS of the travelling community fear they will have nowhere to live if plans to redevelop their Friday Furlong site go ahead.

Many people on the Bidford site said they had not been kept informed about progress being made and were unaware that an application for outline planning permission for 120 houses, a nursing home, shop and open space was now being considered by Stratford District Council.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said any move off the site would cause a lot of upheaval for older people and for her three children, who had made friends in the area.

"Two of mine are school age and are settled here," she said.

"We'll need to find a new school that's willing to take them.

"We can't take them to one school one week and another one the next week. We would like to know when it's going to go so we can make arrangements. We want to know where we stand.

"I often go away and come back but this is somewhere I rely on to stay during the winter. We'll have to find somewhere different every year.

"A lot of people have gone to different places already - about four or five families moved on to the new estate in Waterloo Road because they knew this site was going to go."

Another site user Marie Birch added: "We travel during the summer but we'll have to find somewhere else to stay during the winter, but I don't know where.

Kathleen Smith, who moved onto the site 47 years ago, said she could stay but she had become used to her privacy. "They will build all the way around and it'll be like a town rather than a village," she added.

A special meeting will be held by Bidford Parish Council at the meeting room, in Bramley Way, at 7.30pm, on Monday to discuss the proposal.

Mark Lepkowski, for Stratford District Council, said the council had fulfilled all of its legal and statutory requirements in the consultation process by informing services such as Severn Trent and the fire service of the proposals, sending out 60 letters to immediate neighbours to the development site and informing the parish and ward members for Bidford.

He advised anyone who still had concerns to contact ward members Coun Brian Slaughter on 01789 772441 or Coun Daren Pemberton on 01789 773929.