Planning permission to build eight houses has been refused.

Several Cottesmore residents had contacted Rutland County Council to object to Mel Evans' proposed development behind the village's Main Street.

The council's planning committee came down on their side at a meeting on Tuesday (August 8), after nearly 90 minutes' debate.

Officers from the council accepted the homes plans in principle, said they would be fine visually, and would not negatively affect neighbours' amenities. They also said the council also needed to allow a certain number of new homes to be built to meet its five-year housing target.

The most contentious issue was access to the site – a narrow road between two existing properties that could not be widened or improved.

Objecting to the proposal, Mr and Mrs Wheeler, who live in Main Street, Cottesmore, said: "At 4.8 metres (including the footpath), the narrow access/exit to the new development, which would also require pavements, is not adequate, safe, or convenient.

"In the event of a fire in one of the new houses the road is too narrow for a fire-engine to enter the site as cars would be escaping, causing delay. This inadequate single access/exit to the site could make escape impossible if blocked.

"Consideration should be given not only to the problems caused by the number of cars on the site, but also service vehicles such as refuse lorries, the postman, dustman, delivery vans etc., trying to exit onto the main road, all of would give rise to queuing on the very busy B668 when vehicles are trying to turn into the proposed site, very close to the busy and often congested centre of the village. It is already difficult to access the main road from houses on Main Street during busy rush hours."

Planning permission for land in Cottesmore has been refused. Image credit: LDRS.

Also objecting, Mary Cate of Main Street, Cottesmore, said: "This secluded location in the centre of the village attracted my late husband and I to buy the property in 2004. At that time, the access drive was a mud track, so we laid gravel. The driveway is bounded by the end of my barn and the wall of my neighbour's house – so there is no room for it to be widened."

She added that "the traffic that this proposal would procure is madness" and could lead to cars having to reverse back onto Main Street.

Coun Tim Smith (Lib Dem – Normanton) said: "I think the biggest problem I have with this development is that it is outside the planned limits of development, and if granted could open the floodgates for other applications in villages and towns outside of development limits."

Councillors received clarification from a highways officer that 4.8 metres is the minimum width for two cars to pass one another on a new road, and the access road would class as a 'new' road.

They voted by by a 6-4 majority to refuse the application on the grounds that the development would fall outside the planned limits of the village, and raised concerns about affordability, energy efficiency, access, waste, noise from the football club, ecology and increased flood risk.

Plans for 20 homes on the site were refused in 2014, and a proposal last year for five detached homes was withdrawn.