AS Calstock parish prepares to vote in the Calstock Parish Neighbourhood Development Plan referendum next Thursday, ‘Vote No’ campaigners have taken to social media to claim the plan will stop them building homes for their children.

Those opposed to the development plan have set up a ‘Ban the Plan’ group on Facebook.

All parishioners eligible to vote are invited to go to the polls on January 20 to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the plan which has been years in the making.

If more than 50 per cent of those voting tick the yes box, then the plan will be adopted and used until 2030 by Cornwall Council to decide planning applications in the parish — made up of Calstock, St Ann’s Chapel, Gunnislake, Harrowbarrow and Chilsworthy.

The ‘Vote Yes’ campaign says that Calstock parish has absorbed enough housing in the past ten years.

The plan would ban housing on the green spaces between the villages, although allows for ‘exception sites’ within village boundaries to build affordable housing for local people.

However, resident Shane Pridham believes this is wrong. He wants to build for his children on a greenfield site that would be outside the village boundaries.

Posting on social media, he said: ‘Legislation on development that lasts another eight years needs to be fit for purpose because there are no guarantees on affordable housing.

He added: ‘There are loads of youngsters living with parents. Many have children of their own. They need homes now, not in eight years when the plan expires. It has to be a vote no and surveys need doing throughout this parish on housing need and the amount of people [needing housing].

‘If proper allocations were made, I would be happy to support the Neighbourhood Development Plan as would most of us,’ he added, exhorting people to ‘vote no on January 20’.

John Roberts resigned from Calstock Parish Council recently over the issue.

Posting in the ‘ban the plan’ group, he said: ‘The fact remains that there are people, good decent people, in this area who have nowhere to live.

‘There are families in B&Bs, military vets living in cars and they are the ‘lucky’ ones with some sort of shelter. The plan contains a hell of a lot of good policies but you can’t cherry pick the good and reject the rest. It is either all or nothing.’

Amanda Read, whose family have lived in Calstock for generations, posted within the Facebook group that she supported Shane Pridham ‘in his efforts to provide homes for his children’.

She said: ‘My family have lived here for four generations, my own children being the fifth and my grandchildren being the sixth, but have not been able to buy in the village.

‘Some may say we are privileged to have land but I would say that my family have been working class and very often had difficult times making a living through a small farm…’

She added: ‘Some don’t have the money needed to help their children on the property ladder but could give land for self build with help from family and friends as we had.’

Meanwhile, members of the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign are urging residents within the parish to back the plan as the best chance to maintain the natural beauty of the parish.