A CONTROVERSIAL plan to ‘intrude’ on the countryside by building new homes in a village will now be allowed to go ahead.

Malvern Hills District Council has been overruled by a government planning inspector who has said a bid by H2land to build four new homes in Collett’s Green near Worcester can now go ahead.

Malvern Hills District Council turned down the plan for the four-and-five-bed homes in Collett’s Green last year saying it would have a negative impact on the village.

The developer then successfully turned to the government’s planning inspector, who has the power to veto the council, in a bid to get the decision overturned.

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Despite admitting the new homes would “conflict” with the council’s development plan, as they would be built outside the boundary of the village, the planning inspector still allowed the move to go ahead.

“I have also found that the proposed developments would result in some harm to the rural character and appearance of the area, albeit this conflict would be minor,” planning inspector Bhupinder Thandi said.

“There is no substantive evidence that the road is unsuitable or that the proposal would adversely affect highway safety.”

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More than 70 objections were made against the plan by villagers in Powick who condemned the plan for adding to problems on the ‘rat run’ Collett’s Green Road which had regularly seen cars speeding and was ‘an accident waiting to happen.’

Powick Parish Council had objected to the plan saying it was outside the development boundary for the village and the homes were “inappropriate in size and scale” and “not empathetic to the surrounding area.”

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Planners at Malvern Hills District Council said building the homes would result in a “harmful encroachment” on the countryside and criticised the plan to remove part of the hedgerow.

The council also said building homes would have a “significant negative impact on the quality of the landscape.”

A report outlining the refusal from the council’s planning department said: “The significant conflict with the development plan and the fact that the council has a robust housing land supply and delivery position and the adverse impact of the proposed development on the landscape character, visual amenity, setting listed buildings and potentially biodiversity of the area indicates that planning permission should be refused in this case.”