People power has led to plans for a 62 home estate in Doddington being turned down.

Villagers put pressure on planners to refuse the scheme and even held an emergency Sunday afternoon meeting two months ago in a bid to drum up pressure against the estate.

This week Fenland Council said they were refusing the scheme due to a lack of support from the community and the parish council.

The application for homes on land east of Bevills Close and north of Eastmoor Lane was also turned down because it was not considered a small scale development.

Parish council chairman Ruth Hufton said: “I would like to thank everyone who attended the public meeting and sent in letters of objection.

“We could not have done it without you all!”

The size and scale of the estate would have a negative impact on nearby homes, a report said, because the extra vehicles going through the village would create noise and light pollution.

In addition the report said if a development increased the number of homes in a village by 15 per cent then the plan should have clear community support - which this did not.

A councillor described the 62 homes proposal as “‘an awful deal for the village’ after Doddington called a public meeting in September to rally opposition to the plans.

Councillor Dave Connor, said then that after leafletting in and around the proposed estate he “found 99.9 per cent of people opposed to it”.

The first application was made a year ago by Whetstone to build the estate.

Fenland Council rejected the scheme but behind the scenes negotiations to tackle objections resulted in a fresh bid coming forward.

“We do not need these houses where they propose them,” said Cllr Connor at the time. “It is an awful deal for the village and we really don’t want anything to do with it.”

When the first scheme was refused councillors had to consider nearly 200 objections.