Plans for 29 new homes in South Cumbria have been turned down as they would result in a cramped layout and overdevelopment of the site.
Westmorland and Furness Council has refused a planning application from Mulberry Homes to build the homes on a former garden centre on Allithwaite Road in Flookburgh.
A decision notice said: “The siting and layout of the proposed development would have a significant detrimental impact on residential amenity of existing and future occupiers, both inside and outside the site, by virtue of inadequate separation distances, compromised private external amenity space, overbearing impacts and lack of shared open space within the development.
“There are significant concerns that safe and suitable access to the site for vehicles and pedestrians cannot be achieved, by virtue of inadequate visibility splays from the vehicular access and no provision of a safe pedestrian footway from the site to the village centre. This would have an unacceptable impact on highway safety.”
Plans were submitted in January for the three- to five-bedroom houses, which said the proposals would provide much needed growth for the area.
A design and access statement added: “This site is readily available and deliverable and would sit seamlessly into the surrounding area and would merely become an extension of what is already there whilst providing infill between the existing site already built out and Allithwaite, and within the settlement boundary of Allithwaite, whilst later having the benefit of sustainable development.
“Developments such as these will provide much needed growth for the community as well as a district, whilst forming much needed housing for local families.”
However, the authority received 19 letters of objections which raised concerns over insufficient infrastructure in the local area and fears the development would be overbearing due to three-storey buildings being proposed on the site.
Lower Holker Parish Council said it did not object to development on the site but objected to this planning application and raised concerns over the site layout.
The parish council pointed out the majority of the existing 100-plus dwellings on Allithwaite Road are bungalows and added in the proposed development 14 properties are two-storey and seven are three-storey dwellings.
The parish council said: “This is not in keeping with the adjoining development.
“If larger dwellings are included in the development, it would be more appropriate to place them furthest from the road and the bungalows nearest to the road, which is more in keeping with the existing dwellings.”
