A MOVE to develop homes in Corse is facing opposition from planners.

Gloucester-based JHS Land Ltd has applied for planning permission for seven detached houses with garages and an estate road on land next to Grangebrook and Corse Grange.

Permission already exists for three detached homes on part of the land. The developer says the purchase of Corse Grange, allows for a new access road, meaning more houses can now be built, as concerns about access to the site are no longer relevant.

Forest of Dean District Council will consider the plans at a meeting on Tuesday (June 10).

In a report, its officers say the site is in open countryside and in the Conservation Area of Staunton and Corse. It also adjoins the historic Chartist settlement, the landscape of which the council is keen to preserve.

Six letters of objection have been received by the council, plus a petition containing 28 names. Corse Parish Council is also recommending refusal.

Planning officers say that although permission exists for three houses, it was granted to discourage the site owners from going back to a previous plan for a haulage depot and waste storage facility.

Permission for the "incompatible" depot was granted in 1996.

The developers are holding out the possibility of restoration work to the largely 18th Century Corse Grange, which has previously been stripped of its listed status following unsympathetic repairs. The council says the suggestion is not a formal offer.

Officers recommend the plan be refused as it would set a precedent for development in the open countryside and harm the Conservation Area.