Fears have been raised that a new housing estate could ‘take away’ High Street parking if it is given planning approval this week.

Property developers Cala Homes want to build 90 homes on a field by Ascot High Street. The land is earmarked for housing by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

But residents of Ascot have said the development would mean losing parking spaces on the High Street to make the access into the new development safe.

In an objection to the council, resident Sheila Baddeley said: “This development is taking away any parking for people who want to visit the shops.

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“Ascot does not have a regular bus service and the hill from the Station is very severe for many of the residents.”

She added: “Where do you expect people to park? It will have severe impact on the shops and the footfall will drop significantly with no parking facility.”

Another resident, Patrick Taylor, warned that the development would bring new traffic into the area, adding to parking on the High Street.

He said: “The High Street is already congested to a dangerous level, with limited pedestrian crossings and safe areas for pedestrians.

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"Having this additional traffic flow seems to be a safety risk, given the High St already has so many small roads feeding into it.

“Traffic around this area is often bad. Pollution from cars in this area, either driving slowly; idling; or waiting is significant.

"This can only increase with the new development and the new road access.”

Councillors at the Royal Borough are set to vote on the plans at a meeting on Thursday, December 5. Council planning officers are recommending that they vote to approve them.

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The officers say they are satisfied that the new development will provide enough parking spaces for residents, and won’t make the High Street unsafe.

An officers’ report says they believe the development would create a demand for 100 new parking spaces, but that it would provide 140 for the new homes.

They say: "On this basis the proposed car parking provision is considered acceptable.”

Officers also say that a traffic survey shows that the junction from the development onto the High Street would ‘operate will within capacity’ during morning and afternoon rush hours.

And they say there are ‘significant benefits’ to building the new homes, outweighing limited harms to protected trees.

Their report says: “There are significant benefits surrounding the proposal which more than adequately demonstrate that the harms identified are sufficiently outweighed by the benefits generated by the proposal.

"Officers recommend that planning permission should be forthcoming.”