Plans for 72 affordable homes on the old printworks in Paulton will be decided by Bath and North East Somerset Council next week.

Housing association LiveWest say that there is "significant pent up demand" for affordable housing in the village, with about 200 applications for each available social home.

53 of the planned homes would be offered at social rent, and 20 would be shared ownership properties. These would all be two-storey buildings built across land that was once the Polestar Purnell printworks, just off Oxleaze Way.

The printworks closed in 2005, ending 150 years of the printing industry in Paulton.

LiveWest has urged the council to decide the application quickly and not impose proposed conditions that would see the development delayed due to works out of their control, as the Homes England funding on which the development depends requires that work starts by the end of March.

Mark Windale, the housing association's new business manger, said: "If [these] conditions were to be imposed and LiveWest was unable to commence development to meet the commencement deadline for the delivery of grant funded projects, there is a very real prospect that the funding will be lost to the development altogether, and the 72 affordable homes not built."

But to the 93 locals who submitted objections to the development, this might not sound like a bad thing.

One objector, Ben Partidge, said: "Paulton has very quickly become a large village and it's current infrastructure is already overwhelmed. There is a growing demand for improved services and infrastructure that have not been met.

"Nurseries, schools, primary healthcare such as the GP services in addition to dentistry care are already over run with prolonged wait times for appointments, waiting lists for admissions and poor access and congestion."

He added: "Paulton has already had a large amount of affordable homes."

Kate Knight, who lives on a road near the development, submitted an objection to the planning application, saying: "When I purchased my house […], I was told that no houses were to be built in front of our house. If you were to build more houses it would block our view.

"When my house was sold to me I was told a park would be built there, not more houses. This would be unfair to those that bought their homes with this sales speech."

The application was referred to Bath and North East Somerset Council's planning committee by Paulton councillor Liz Hardman who said that "a disproportionate amount of housing" was being built on the old printworks site.

The planning committee will decide whether to allow the development at a meeting on February 8, at 2pm in Bath's Guildhall.

The application details are under : 22/01124/FUL