CONTROVERSIAL plans for about 11 homes on farmland will finally be decided by Copeland Council’s planning panel next week.

The council’s development panel will meet at the Civic Centre on Wednesday June 8 to determine a single planning application, involving land at Bowrie Fauld, west of Smithy Banks.

Tetra Tech’s client hopes to build homes at the site in Holmrook. Although the application has been submitted in outline with more details set to be revealed at a later date, permission is requested to develop the land for about 11 homes.

Homes on the stretch of open countryside are locally controversial receiving an objection from Drigg & Carleton Parish Council.

The parish council has said that its Community Led Plan “supports small residential developments of affordable and care focussed housing on selected sites, but there is no evidence of support for a development of this size and type at this location, in an open countryside field site.”

Paris councillors have also argued that the site should be moved outside of the settlement boundary of the Copeland Local Plan.

They believe that the new homes would reduce “the green field space separating Drigg and Holmrook leaving only a narrow strip of agricultural land separating the two settlements and risking the two villages drifting into one conjoined settlement.”

Due to the level of local interest and objections raised, it was resolved at a previous meeting of the development panel to defer the verdict so that panel members could visit the site.

It is now decision time for the application at a meeting of the development panel on Wednesday June 8 at 2pm.

The case officer’s recommendation for the outline application is to grant approval.

In supporting statements submitted with their application, Tetra Tech said: “It is envisaged that the dwellings could be a mix of single storey, one and a half storey and two storeys in height.

“The overall size of the dwellings will vary as the intention is to provide a well-balanced mix of housing, including both affordable and open market dwellings.”

They argue that the development “presents a suitable expansion to Holmrook” and believe it would not create “adverse effects in terms of highway safety.”