OPPONENTS celebrated in the council chamber as a planning application to build 120 houses on farmland were refused.

Residents cheered as councillors voted by eight votes to five to reject an application for a new housing estate on the edge of Sherburn Village, near Durham City.

The Church Commissioners for England had applied for outline permission to build on five-and-a-half hectares of agricultural land bordering Mill Lane on the outskirts of the village.

But more than 100 villagers, backed by Sherburn, Belmont and Shadforth Parish Councils as well as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, lodged written objections to the scheme, many highlighting the loss of farmland and describing the development as an incursion into the countryside.

Although Durham County Council’s planning officers recommended the housing estate be approved, members of the authority’s county planning committee voted to reject the scheme after a lengthy debate at County Hall in Durham today (Wednesday, September 2)

Cllr Isabel Maving, of Sherburn Village Parish Council, told the meeting: “The 120 houses will not benefit our village in any way, shape or form.

“The impact on our village will be negative in the extreme: our local school is oversubscribed; our GP surgery is oversubscribed.”

Division member County Councillor Bill Kellett raised traffic safety issues, saying there had recently been four accidents near the site.

He added: “If this committee were to give permission for 120 houses, it leaves the door open for further development.”

However, Daniel Hatcher, representing the Church Commissioners insisted the proposal was “a sustainable development” and added: “The development will deliver economic and social benefits and will be acceptable in environmental terms.”

He also highlighted that, as a proposed condition, £158,000 would be spent providing another classroom for the village school and added that the developers had consulted the Primary Care Trust about capacity at the surgery and the health body had raised no objections to the scheme.

Committee member Cllr Grenville Holland said: “There is clearly strong local opposition to this application. There is no overwhelming need for more housing land to be released.

“Building on this site is inappropriate – it does not benefit the village and its community.”

Cllr Bill Moir added: “To paraphrase a famous purveyor of carpets, I love housing me, but I don’t think I would love it there.”