Plans for new homes on land adjacent to Brickhampton Golf Club are set to go to Tewkesbury Borough Council's planning committee next week (February 20).

The hybrid planning application is for full planning permission for use of land as public amenity space, with outline planning for seven affordable homes and eight market value homes. As a hybrid application in three parts, the committee will need to consider each element separately.

Council officers are recommending the application be refused.

The application site is 2.4 hectares of land retained by the applicants after the farm was developed into Brickhampton Golf Club, club house and driving range in 1990. In 1994, eight houses were built on the site.

The application has received no objection from a range of authorities, including Gloucestershire County Council, as the highways authority, ecology, archaeology, the tree officer, local flood officer and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

But there are objections from Churchdown Parish Council and Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) because the development is on Green Belt land.

In addition, the council's affordable housing officer objects to the plans on the basis that the affordable homes are separated from the market sale units.

The proposals have received 16 letters of objection, including one signed by 12 members of the golf club. Objections relate to the Green Belt, the impact on traffic and an increase in noise and disturbance.

There were 12 letters of support, in relation to the provision of facilities for young children and provision of new homes, including affordable homes.

The proposed public open space would consist of a community woodland, pedestrian access, play space and biodiversity enhancements for the enjoyment of local residents of Churchdown and Innsworth.

In relation to the proposed play space, the applicant has provided no details on the type and size of play facilities to be used. Because this element of the proposal is for full planning permission, the council cannot assess the impact it would have on the Green Belt, which council officers say makes this part of the proposal unacceptable.

The proposed housing isn't within a defined settlement, as set out in the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) for Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, and is physically separated from Churchdown by existing hedgerows and a small watercourse.

However, Tewkesbury cannot currently demonstrate the required five-year housing land supply, giving the application more weight.

The applicant has offered several considerations it believes constitute very special circumstances which outweigh the harm to the Green Belt:

• Provision of housing where there is a lack of local housing supply in Tewkesbury

• Provision of affordable housing above the recognised 40% standard figure (at 47% for the proposed scheme)

• Provision of community woodland

• Provision of a play area

• Provision of new footpaths and improved connectivity

• Provision of landscaping and screening

• Consideration of the development as infilling of existing development

• Previous consideration of the site for removal from the Green Belt

But the council does not consider a number of these arguments to amount to benefits.

The JCS aims to integrate all types of housing, so affordable housing tenants are part of an inclusive community, with affordable housing developers expected to disperse affordable units evenly across and throughout the development scheme amongst open market homes to encourage the formation of mixed, balanced and sustainable communities.

The proposed plans do not meet this requirement, as the proposed affordable homes are to the north of the existing homes on the site and the proposed market rate homes are to the south.

The committee will make a decision on the plans at its meeting next week.

This article was amended on February 21 to make it clear the land isn't owned by Brickhampton Court.