PROTESTERS fear proposals to build 80 houses near a school will put the lives of children at risk and result in traffic chaos on their estate.

About 120 people packed a public meeting last night to voice their anger over an application by Fairland Investment to construct the properties on land between Valley Road and Brighton Road in Newhaven.

Some residents threatened to blockade roads with their cars to stop lorries passing through if the development is given permission by Lewes District Council.

They fear quiet

residential streets will be used by motorists as rat-runs to the new estate and the A259, endangering children who live nearby and attend Meeching

Valley School, in

Valley Road.

Newhaven mayor Lynne Austin said: "There is no way we should allow any more traffic down Valley Road. We have 2,000 vehicles in and out every day. Cars speed down there and the road is cracking up already."

Fairland Investment wants to use two existing roads as access points to the development.

But Mark Smith, of The Fairway, who has a seven-year-old daughter, said: "We have already seen two near accidents outside our home. The roads are already packed with parked cars and you have to weave in and out just to get down here.

"The roads just can't cope. At the moment children can play outside but

that won't be able to continue and it won't be long before we see an accident."

Residents also said there were not enough facilities to cope with a massive rise in population.

Rose Taylor, chairman of the governors of Meeching Valley School, warned: "If the developers had done their homework they would know Meeching Valley could not cope with the extra houses and the children they would supply."

Ian Mills, East Sussex County Council highways engineer, said the council hoped to block off part of Valley Road near the school to traffic to stop it becoming a rat-run.

The site has been earmarked in local plans for up to 106 houses since the Seventies.

Martin Stallard, Lewes District Council assistant director of planning, said: "What has been determined is that the site will be developed for residential accommodation at some stage. What is not a foregone conclusion is the details."

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