REDEVELOPMENT has started on land in Gloucester Street, Wotton-under-Edge, where an excavator has been levelling the ground in preparation for new buildings.

Owners of the derelict land in front of 7 Gloucester Street gained planning permission from Stroud District Council in June, 2002, for a terrace of four properties in the style of other houses in the street. Each dwelling will be three storeys high, with a communal parking area.

Wotton Town Council's planning committee had objected on the grounds the proposal would constitute overdevelopment of the site.

And resident of nearby Tabernacle Road Doug Barker said: "We have applied for permission to build a house on land near us where a garage has stood for more than 20 years.

"We were refused on the grounds of safety and increased traffic - and yet four houses are allowed on that site."

Vic Jellings, from Old Town, was brought up in a cottage on the site from 1929 to 1937.

He said: "There were three cottages there but they didn't extend back as far as these new ones will."

Wotton Town Council has contacted Stroud District Council with concerns about the safety of the site.

Pictured: An illustration by Vic Jellings of the cottages that used to stand in Gloucester Street, Wotton-under-Edge GJA989H03