Planners block building (From Stroud News and Journal)

Planners block building

PLANS to build a house on the Ruscombe farmland controversially carved up in an internet sale have been booted out by council planners.

Ebley Mill thwarted the application to build a single-storey house on the beauty spot, saying the proposed building breached four separate planning policies on their local plan.

Campaigners fighting to save the valley from developers hailed the snub as a sign that landowners would find it tough to build on the 39-acre site.

Rebecca Charley, chair of the Ruscombe Valley Action Group, said: "We are very pleased. It is exactly what we wanted to hear.

"Stroud District Council has been firm and clear in their reasons for rejecting this application. The damage to the valley would be immeasurable.

"We just have to carry on hoping that they will be as strong with all future applications." Sussex company Gladwish Land Sales caused an outcry last year when they sold the land to investors after dividing it into 184 small plots.

Residents fear the new landowners could band together and put pressure on the council to allow building on the picturesque site, a haven for badgers, toads and rare horseshoe bats.

Planning officers turned down the application saying it was outside defined boundaries for building and posed a flood risk.

They also said the plan would spoil the protected landscape and create a traffic hazard on a nearby public footpath.

Ward councillor Linda Durrans (Lab) was pleased with the decision. "We have to provide new housing but it is up to us how we allocate the sites," she said. "It is up to us to make realistic and positive decisions."

Ruscombe Valley Action Group is currently calling on MPs in other parts of the country affected by similar sales to tighten up laws protecting UK countryside.