PLANS for a 40-home development on farmland in Alresford have been rejected by a Government planning inspector.

Alresford has been inundated with new developments in recent years and there are outstanding planning permissions for more than 300 more homes.

Parish councillors have said they do want some development, especially of affordable homes, but that they wanted it restricted to within the village boundary.

Tendring Council turned down an application for 40 homes on land south of Main Road in June last year.

The council said the development would have been inappropriate in size for the village and would harm the character and appearance of the area.

The developer, Go Homes, appealed against the decision to the independent Planning Inspectorate.

However following an appeal hearing, Planning Inspector Graham Chamberlain backed the council’s decision and did not allow planning permission for the scheme, which would also have included affordable homes, allotments and open space.

While recognising the scheme would contribute to a shortfall of housing in the district, Mr Chamberlain ruled that the proposal would “significantly harm the character and appearance of Alresford and would be unsympathetic to its landscape”.

He also noted that two other planning inspectors had recently found the level of development which had already taken place in Alresford is “more than can be considered limited' when looking at slightly larger development proposals.

Parish council chairman Frank Belgrove said: "The parish council would concur with the planning inspector - it is the right decision.

"We have had sufficient development in Alresford in recent years - some of it has been quite extreme.

"We are currently working on our own neighbourhood plan and that development would not have been in line with it."

Councillors have claimed many developers’ plans for the village were speculative but were granted because Tendring Council did not have a five-year plan for future housing in place.

A report by Go Homes said the scheme for Main Road would have been "sustainable" and any impacts on the countryside would have been "extremely negligible".