A massive housing development is on the cards for High Harrington.

Story Homes has revealed it wants to build up to 120 houses on land at Whins Farm.

The development would be near to the 75-home Whins Farm Close, which the housing giant built nearly three years ago.

The village is currently in the middle of a housing boom.

Thomas Armstrong (Construction) Ltd has just begun building 80 houses near Castle Close and in the past couple of years there has been a substantial development at Bellaport Gardens.

Bosses at Story Homes say its Whins Farm Close scheme was a huge success, with queues of people interested in buying a home at the launch event.

It is expected that if given the go-ahead, this new estate which would be on the opposite side of the road, would attract the same attention.

However, many villagers are not happy with the news. They say the amount of traffic passing through at the moment – especially wagons – is horrendous and these new homes could lead to hundreds more vehicles using the roads.

Jennifer Barnes, of Main Road, said: “Nobody takes any notice of the speed limit – they just whizz up and down the road.

“There’s always lots of traffic and nobody sticks to the 30mph speed limit. It’s a nightmare trying to get out of our driveway, as although it looks clear, cars speed down the hill.”

Marjorie Rae, of Springfield Avenue in High Harrington, was shocked when she learned about Story Homes’ plans.

“I’m extremely concerned,” she said. “Harrington is only a small village and we have got a lot of children walking to and from school.

“At the moment the traffic is horrendous and at school times it’s like a rat race.

“Luckily nobody has been knocked over, but there has been many near-misses.”

Mrs Rae, a county councillor for Harrington, has worked hard to secure funding for a footpath children can use to walk next to the railway line to Beckstone Primary School. But many of them cross the main road to get onto this path.

Story Homes has this month lodged a screening opinion with Allerdale council to see what documents would be needed to support a full planning application, which it hopes to submit next month.

David Hayward, planner at Story Homes, said: “We have seen a lot of early demand in all of our sites, but Whins Farm Close in particular has proven very popular.

“Our launch event had a long queue of people waiting outside to buy our homes, and within the first hour, four houses had been reserved.

“By the end of the two-day launch, eight homes had been sold and more than 150 people had been through the doors looking for more information.

“Given the popularity, we envisage this new collection of homes being just as sought after.”