A NEW housing development is on its way to Stow-on-the-Wold after councillors passed a planning application – 10 minutes after refusing it.

The 20 house development on the site of a former care home in Union Street had been met with disapproval from councillors at a Cotswold District Council (CDC) planning committee meeting last month.

They had aired concerns that the access road was too narrow, there were too many houses for a small area and that it could disturb an Iron Age hill fort.

The boundary was moved away from the hill fort and the developer agreed to widen the access road and remove one of the plots from the north end of the site.

Removing the plot slashed the amount the company had to contribute to education and affordable housing in the area from £156,067 to £59,179.

Stow-on-the-Wold Town Council still had reservations about the development.

Town councillor Alun White, said: “The site has a narrow entrance and poor access. The traffic knock on in Union Street could be severe.

He also lamented that “a site that for well over a hundred years has provided a community asset will disappear”.

The density of houses on the new development would not be any more than other areas in Stow.

Councillors at this month’s planning meeting expressed reservations about the application and voted against it but CDC's head of planning reminded them that they needed strong grounds to deny the application or they would get embroiled in a costly appeal from the developer.

In a second very similar vote the committee passed the application with 11 votes in favour and two against.