CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after fighting off a planning application that could have seen 1,000 homes built on the outskirts of an east Cleveland village.

For more than seven years, residents in the Marske have been objecting to scheme at Marske Inn Farm and now the project has run out of time after being submitted to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council’s planning department in March 2013.

Parish councillor John Lambert said more than 2,300 letters of objections were submitted by angry residents and the local authority’s planning officers have agreed with them.

Now the scheme, submitted by the West Midlands Superannuation Fund, is not expected to go before committee members and is expected to be off the books by the end of the month.

Cllr Lambert, chairman of Saltburn, Marske and New Marske parish council’s planning committee, said the result was a bittersweet victory for residents.

He said: “For the best part of seven years the public purse has been paying for officers to work on this scheme with the applicant and it has come to nothing. There was never the need for it and we have said that from the beginning.”

As well as the 1,000 homes, the application included a petrol station, food outlets, public house and a 60-bed hotel.

Cllr Lambert said: “The land owners and their agents Frank Knight were asked to attend a meeting in the parish council chambers three-and-a-half-years ago and through open and frank exchanges it was made clear then that the application was totally impractical and unacceptable.

“Despite, a further presentation and Q&A session and rejection of the proposal by residents and the parish council the outline planning application was submitted in 2013.

“Now two years later it is over, it is a bittersweet victory that the scheme is now coming to nothing after seven years of fighting.”

Over the years the scheme has been amended by the applicant after working closely with council officers in an attempt to resolve any planning issues surrounding the ambitious development.

A council report concludes that the scheme should not go ahead. It reads: “Taking into account all the above considerations, the application cannot be supported. As the site is outside development limits the proposals are contrary to Policy DP1 in the current development plan and no exceptional circumstances have been demonstrated under which development should be allowed.”

A council spokesman said the application is still live until March 31 and is due to be discussed at a planning department meeting on March 20.

No one was available from West Midlands Superannuation Fund for comment.

In January a planning application for 130 homes between Marske and Saltburn was rejected because it fell outside the council's development limits and there was already sufficient housing supply earmarked for the area.

One reason for rejection was the importance of maintaining a distance between Saltburn and Marske, known as a “strategic gap”, was also used to defend why the plans should not go ahead.