PLANS to build 33 houses in Malvern have been approved by district councillors in the face of opposition by residents living close to the site.

Objections to the plan by BDM Developments began as soon as the firm announced its intentions to build on a green field site off Broadlands Drive in North Malvern.

The company revealed its plans at a public consultation event at Northleigh School on July 2014, with its initial planning application, for 41 houses, following later that year.

BDM withdrew this plan in February 15, and later submitted the 33-home version.

But the scaled-down plan failed to quell the fears of local opponents, who were worried about its impact on the existing road network, especially Cowleigh Road and Belmont Road.

They said the safety of school children and parents walking to and from Northleigh Primary School would be put at risk. At the moment, vehicles have to park on the pavement in Broadlands Drive and Cowleigh Bank, meaning that pedestrians, push chairs, prams, and invalid carriages use the roadway together with traffic, and further building will only make the problem worse.

Residents also cited the problem of floodwater, saying the site was prone to flooding and that developing it might put neighbouring properties at risk.

However, the site was included for development in the recently-completed South Worcestershire Development Plan, and at a meeting on Malvern Hills District Council's southern area development control committee, members reluctantly approved it.

Ward members Julian Roskams said: "Since it is in the SWDP, we felt that we had to approved it. If we didn't, the developer would have taken it to appeal, where we wouldn't have had a leg to stand on and we would have lost.

"An earlier version of the SWDP, put forward in 2012, decisively turned down this land as suitable for development, which in my view was the right decision, but this was overturned when the inspector decided to increase the size of the housing allocation."

Cllr Roskams said that he and fellow ward councillor John Raine hoped to work closely with planning officers, the highways department and the applicant on road safety measures, particularly at the Broadlands Drive-Cowleigh Bank junction.

Cllr Raine said that he, too, felt traffic calming was needed on Cowleigh Bank, and that he had wanted to establish a working party with local resident representatives as well as highways and planning officers to identify a more comprehensive and acceptable solution to the traffic problems in the road.

However, planning officers advised that any such discussions could not form part of the decision on the planning application, and that any deferral of the application for this purpose would risk an appeal from the developer.

With little choice therefore to accept the proposal as presented at the meeting, the local councillors reluctantly recommended approval, though pledging to continue to seek improvements to road and pedestrian safety in the area, which includes Northleigh Primary School.