A plan for up to three self-build homes on the outskirts of the picturesque Cotswold town of Painswick has been rejected by Stroud District Council - for a second time.

Outline application for the self-build homes was initially put before planners in 2022 for a 0.6-hectare parcel of sloping land which belongs to Stamages House. The property sits on Stamages Lane, which runs south of the town and to the east of the Richmond Village retirement complex and the proposed access for the site was via the driveway of Stamages House.

Duncan Lloyd-Jones, a director of Worcester-based South West Property Group Ltd, made the application for the scheme, with details of the proposed work being submitted by architect and designer Dan Stiff, a director of Worcester-based Boughton Butler. 

Design details for the properties included Cotswold stone walls and slate tiling, full-height glazing, timber cladding and wildflower/Sedum flat roofing.

In a landscape and visual assessment impact report as part of the revised bid, planners were told that the site currently is laid to lawn/managed grass, and that "there is a dense belt of mature trees, containing a high proportion of evergreens such as yew, conifers and pines. A conifer hedge demarcates the western site boundary, the eastern site boundary is demarcated by the driveway to Stamages House." 

Views from Richmond Village and Stamages Lane would be largely obscured, the report said, though it acknowledged that the visibility from residential property close to the site was "high".

Further support was given by Cotswold Archaeology (CA), who reported that the did not represent an element of setting which contributes to the Conservation Area's significance.

CA said: "On the basis of the analysis presented here... the proposals would not result in any harm to the significance of designated heritage assets and would therefore accord with the policies of the NPPF and the Stroud District Local Plan."

But a case review by SDC officer Nick Gardiner comprehensively rebuffed the bid - which was judged to be in a "prominent open space" within AOB land which was too close to the core of Painswick.

Mr Gardiner said: The application site is outside defined settlement development limits, does not form part of a strategic allocation, nor does it meet the exception principles that support development outside settlement limits."

He added that it "has failed to demonstrate that there is a local housing need in Painswick for the scale, type and tenure of the proposed self-build dwellings. The site has not been brought forward as a strategic site, is not an exception site for affordable self-build units to meet an identified need by Painswick Parish Council and therefore does not accord with policy HC3 or HC4 of the adopted Stroud District Local Plan (2015).

It is unknown whether the applicant will appeal the decision.