ANOTHER group of residents is preparing to do battle with developers set on filling every nook and cranny in the town with new homes!

Plans are afoot to squeeze four two bedroom terraced houses in the rear garden of a house in Barony Road.

Neighbours object and have called a meeting at the nearby Rifleman public house for this Thursday evening.

The protesters who live in James Hall Street and Barony Terrace maintain that the proposed new homes and ten parking places will be crammed in, too close to other properties and overlooking some.

The area is quite densely developed already and the roads are narrow.

More homes and traffic will cause extra problems, they claim.

The residents have the backing of local borough councillor Edith Williams who believes that this is just another example of the way developers are attempting to snap up every bit of green space in the town.

Planners have put a curb on any more major growth in the town after it became a prime target for home builders.

"Therefore they are on the look out for any small site on which to slap a few properties.

It's getting to the stage where they will be pouring over the ordnance survey map and going for wherever they can spot a patch of grass," she said.

"For some of the protesting families the proposals put the new buildings too close to their homes. Some bought their properties because they backed onto another garden and it was peaceful and quiet. Now they see their lives changing," she added.

The Barony Road protest follows a bid to save a pre-war house in Marsh Lane from being demolished and replaced with three two storey homes.

Local pressure there did persuade the developers to alter their original plans for four three-storey houses, but the fight to save the old house continues.

Cllr Bill McGinnis, who is on the borough planning committee will be trying to persuade fellow members to refuse permission for the development at the rear of Barony Road.

" I fear we will be getting quite a few applications like this. Developers will be turning to infilling now that the rush to build new estates has been halted and it will be a case of trying to fit a quart into a pint pot because they want to make their money," he said.

l The meeting at the Rifleman tonight, Thursday, begins at 8.30pm.