A CONTROVERSIAL bid to build 70 new homes in Blunsdon has been given the green light.

Developer Castlewood Commercial Properties was given outline permission for the estate on the eastern edge of the village south of Burytown Lane in late 2018.

Now the detailed plan – which includes a shop and café and an extension to the cemetery at the edge of the site – has been approved.

The plans show the houses would be set back from the main road to the north, with almost a third of the site given to green land.

Access will be off a junction with Sams Lane, running down the site's western edge.

But not everyone is as satisfied.

Rebecca Lansley, who lives in Cobden Road, told planners: “The design of the whole estate is terrible with no thought for the history attached this very special part of the village.

"I thought the builders would come up with something better. Disgraceful.”

Blunsdon Parish Council was very much against granting the initial outline planning permission.

But chairman Ian Jankinson said the details of the development were 'acceptable'.

He said: “We vehemently opposed giving this development permission – I went to the planning committee to argue against it, but we lost that fight.

“Since then we’ve made our concerns clear to Castlewood Commercial and the planning officer and Castlewood has improved things and taken them into the account.

"The company gave up some land for an extension to the cemetery and the village shop committee has got a good agreement with it for a good community shop.

“There is 110m space between the houses to be built and the conservation area, which is the best we could have hoped for, and the access point was moved in response to our concerns.

“We didn’t want these houses to be built, but as they are, this is as good as we could have expected.”

Other neighbours expressed concerns about the increase in traffic caused by the development – in terms of pollution, road safety and congestion.

Castlewood Commercial said its plans were in sympathy with the existing buildings in the village and provided generous gardens to the front and back of each house.

The firm has lodged a proposal to build another 115 houses on the filed directly south of the land where the 70 houses will be built.

That application has yet to be decided.