Onchan Commissioners have raised concerns about how the village would cope with a massive increase in vehicles.

The commissioners told inquiry chairman Michael Hurley that access points around the village and main roads are already under strain.

Focusing on site OH011, Ballachrink at the top of Birch Hill which is listed in the draft area plan for 200 houses, the commissioners have said that the roads around the Birch Hill site would become heavily congested. Representing the local authority, Ross Phillips said that its primary concern towards the plan is congestion on and around Hillberry Road, where the entrance to Birch Hill comes onto the main road and heads towards Signpost Corner.

The local authority, which is organising its own traffic assessment of the plans, says that the introduction of 200 homes would lead to increased congestion in Birch Hill, on the junction of Highfield Road and Highfield Crescent and at Signpost Corner.

Concern was also raised that an increase in families if the proposed site was built would, in time, lead to the expansion of the St Ninian’s Lower School site at Bemahague which is accessed from the traffic lights on Hillberry Road and as such, lead to an increase in morning traffic at the junction.

And Mr Phillips pointed out issues about the current road system, noting that a nursery just down from the lower entrance to Birch Hill led to congestion in the morning as cars wait to turn in to its car park.

Cabinet Office representative John Barrett QC spoke briefly in response to Mr Phillips, asking him if the objections were the same as when site was last considered for development in 2004, to which he said they were.

He also said that any future expansion of St Ninian’s Lower School would require a traffic assessment and would only be granted if that issue could be addressed.