Castletown Commissioners have expressed support for plans for a major residential development at Great Meadow.

An application has been submitted for approval in principle for the housing development ,in fields off Malew Road, which includes sheltered housing, a care home and a community centre.

At the last commissioners meeting, chairman Colin Leather told members ’Castletown needs housing’ and facilities in the application reflected the ’mixed needs’ of the community.

He added the proposal follows calls for sites suitable for development in town instituted by the authority.

Commissioner Jimmy Cubbon said: ’What’s proposed will bring massive employment opportunities.’

Members voted unanimously to send a letter expressing their support for the application. But campaigners have objected to the plan due to its impact on the heritage landscape surrounding the Golden Meadow Mill, and raised the issues of traffic and its effect on infrastructure.

Originally the Great Meadow application was for 130 houses, but this was amended by planners to ’omit words "approx 130"’.

This proposal, plus plans for housing at Knock Rushen and opposite Janet’s Corner, mean several hundred new homes could be built in Castletown.

Castletown Commissioners chairman Colin Leather said: ’We’ve always been in need of houses. People have left the town to go and live elsewhere.

’A common thing that you hear in the town is: "I’ve been brought up in the town and I would like my children to be brought up in the town as well".

’And unfortunately they have had to leave the town and move elsewhere in the island.’

Responding to concerns about the development’s potential impact on the Golden Meadow Mill, he said: ’Providing the development is done with sympathy with what’s around it I don’t see it being a problem.

’It’s so easy to say this has got to be a greenbelt but that stifles the growth of the town.’