Plans to build 38 new homes in Barrow have been turned down because the development was based on quantity not quality.
Westmorland and Furness Council refused the planning application from Mulberry Homes to build the homes on open fields north of Sherbourne Avenue.
A decision notice issued by the council said the proposals did not deliver high quality design required by the local plan.
It said: “It appears tightly packed and cramped, utilises standard dwelling types, with inadequate dysfunctional parking arrangements, a lack of usable public open space which benefits from surveillance, including play space, and it would fail to compliment the adjacent rural landscape and green wedge.
“The result is a scheme which appears to be based on quantity rather than quality or good urban design principles, and lacking assimilation into the context of the area.”
The decision notice added there was a lack of visitor parking, the proposed development did not convincingly demonstrate a net gain in biodiversity and there was no evidence the proposed affordable homes met the needs of a registered provider or the local need.
According to planning documents, the proposed housing development would consist of a range of two to five-bedroomed properties with four affordable homes.
The planning statement said: “The proposed design will attempt to create a more modern spacious private housing estate than that already established on the first two phases of the site.
“The views will be open to all aspects around the site, and at the northern edge of the site a clear opening can be seen through to the open green area beyond the boundary, and the privacy distances will be in compliance with the Local Authorities privacy distances.”
A previous outline planning application for a housing development on the same site was approved but the date to submit reserved matters has now expired.
