Fenland District Council granted planning application approval for the erection of two four-bedroom single storey homes on land just south east of 182 Wype Road in Eastrea going against the advice of the council’s planning officer.

Chairman, Cllr David Connor heard at the meeting of the planning committee (June 19) that the houses were out of character both in size and design for Eastrea which is classed as a 'small village'.

Cllr Connor said: "I understand that the site lies immediately adjacent to a working farm, and the noise impacts from the operation of the farm have not properly been taking into consideration by the developers."

However, an undertaking was given to the members that full noise reduction materials would be use to soften the impact of the farm operation on the residents, and that the current application was in fact an updated amendment to a withdrawn application for similar dwellings on the site from March 2019.

Members voted to go against the planning officer's recommendation, and granted to the planning application with the conditions agreed with the committee chairman in respect of noise.

Two other planning applications were refused by the committee, both of which were made in agreement with the recommendation of planning officers.

Plans for up to five dwellings on land north of 3A-15 High Road, Gorefield was refused on the grounds that the proposed designs are far too large and out of character with Gorefield, which is classified as a 'small village'.

It was considered that the development would erode the countryside character of the plot, instead introducing a ribbon-development from which an urbanising effect would result.

Finally, the site was in a flood plain with a medium to high risk of flooding in the future, and while the applicant had submitted a flood test appraisal it could not be shown that at any time in the future the risk of flooding could be reduced to 'low'.

On that basis the application was refused.

The final application refusal was for up to 15 homes, outline applications only, on land north of 17 Doddington Road, Benwick which would require the demolition of a series of existing garage buildings.

The application was similar to one that had been refused in May 2018, and the current refusal was for the same reasons - the development was considered too high a density of dwellings for the size of land and the area in which the properties were planned.

The settlement of Benwick is identified as a 'small village', and a development of this scale was considered by the members to be too large and out of character for the area.

The application also failed to pass either of the required flood expectation surveys. The application was refused.