RESIDENTS on a Waterside estate have banded together to fight a plan for a new development just metres from their homes.

A number of their neighbours in Holbury have agreed to sell off parts of their garden or property for thousands of pounds to make way for 15 new homes to be built on their land.

It has left occupiers of various properties in Renda Road, Williams Close and Springfield Avenue furious that their lives will be blighted by a loss of privacy.

Gill Sworn, 44, a conveyancing assistant, of Renda Road, said: "I will stand out there if the bulldozers come. I am just outraged really that any builder or neighbour with any respect for anybody else's lives and properties could have the audacity to even think that established gardens could be a development area for 15 properties."

Foreman Homes has submitted an application for outline planning permission to build a mixture of houses and bungalows.

If it is approved they will then lodge a more detailed application to build on land comprising chunks of two gardens in Renda Road and two in Springfield Avenue.

Another resident in Renda Road has agreed to sell his entire property and garden so that it can be demolished to provide a new access road.

"We bought this property because it's a quiet area," said Glenn Sworn, 47, a caterer. "If you start putting another 15 houses up in people's back gardens the value of our properties will drop. This is somewhere we want to retire.''

Molly Tubbs, retired, of Williams Court, added: "It's too densely pop-ulated already without putting another 15 houses in the middle. We also have a lovely view from the back of our property at the moment which would be ruined."

The residents are also concerned about safety because of the in-creased traffic that will result from the development.

They added that further development in the area is supposed to be restricted according to the Fawley Major Hazard Zone because of its close proximity to the refinery.

The angry residents have vowed to hold regular meetings and will lodge formal objections to the application before it is considered by planning chiefs.

Steve Carrington, planning manager at Foreman Homes, said: "The application is still being analysed by the planning authority but we are confident that what we have done accords with government guidance which is to make the best use of urban land."