A PUBLIC meeting, held to discuss plans for massive increase in new houses in Liskeard, was packed out on Friday by concerned residents.

The open meeting, to which all residents in the Lodge Hill, Lamellion and Trevillis areas were invited, was held in the Public Hall's Long Room. Such was the response that people had to pack into the back of the room, and stand.

The meeting was called because of fears that people in Liskeard are not fully aware that under the local plan up to the year 2011 a total of 1,500 new properties are allocated to Liskeard. Of these houses 900 could be built on a site in the Lodge Hill/Lamellion area, as it is close to the railway station.

One of the residents organising the meeting, Anne Sandercock, said the Caradon 2000 document was read out at the meeting, and she said it appeared that 'very, very few' of those attending realised the full implications of the housing proposed for the town. She said comments made were those of scale, traffic problems, lack of infrastructure, strain on the sewage system, the fact the properties were being imposed on Cornwall by government, and the question that Objective One money may mean Cornwall having to take a larger share of new housing.