Controversial Troutbeck homes plan rejected

Highthwaite Ltd wanted to build five four-bedroom homes in Troutbeck

Controversial plans to build five homes in the Lake District have been rejected.

Opponents of the proposed four-bedroom homes at High Green, Troutbeck, said it would look like a "suburban cul-de-sac" in the countryside and add to traffic problems.

Lake District National Park Authority officers had recommended the plan from Highthwaite Ltd be approved.

But committee members sided with the objectors.

'Tranquil farm urbanised'

The authority's area planner Jackie Ratcliffe said the homes off Scot Brow would would have been "irregularly and informally arranged" and their "traditional" style would have been "appropriate for this location".

But Lorayne Wall, planning officer at conservation charity Friends of the Lake District, described the proposed properties as "large, luxury, prestige homes designed to look like farmhouses with attached barns", adding the proposed layout was "that of a suburban cul-de-sac".

Another objector, Trish Donson, said the extra vehicles would have placed "huge pressure on the fragile historic bridleways and on to the dangerous junctions with Scot Brow" adding: "This tranquil, agricultural site, visited by one farm vehicle, will be urbanised."

'Local couples'

She also said it would "not meet genuine local need" and harm the "local character" of Troutbeck, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Speaking on behalf of Highthwaite, Harry Tonge of chartered town planning firm Steven Abbott Associates LLP said the plan would have made "effective and efficient use of land within Troutbeck to deliver local needs housing".

He said occupiers who were "local couples from the local area" had been lined up for three of the houses.

Committee members said they would prefer smaller homes on the site with Hugh Brannet saying the plan constituted a "further gentrification of what's happening in the national park now".

Committee chairman Geoff Davies said: "I find that I'm not convinced that the benefit outweighs the negative things in this case."