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Planners have rejected a developer’s bid to exploit a perceived gap in council policies and build in the open countryside.

Simon Hill had wanted permission to build up to 53 homes in Lower End, near Wavendon, with his planning agents saying that Milton Keynes Council was unable to meet its housing obligations.

A report from property experts Bidwells was submitted to council planners in support of the plan.

They said the application for the 2.1 hectare agricultural site was “a response to the current lack of a deliverable five-year land supply in Milton Keynes.”

Developer's bid to build houses on a rural plot has been rejected

They considered that although the site is in the open countryside it is “considered to be a sustainable location for development”. It is near to a development of 410 houses being built at Eagles Rest.

They added: “In the context of the lack of deliverable housing land in Milton Keynes, the proposal represents a logical extension to the urban area.”

They said the council needs to find places to put 820 new homes, and has a “significant shortfall” in the amount of affordable housing exists.

But council planners rejected the developer’s case.

“Contrary to the contention of the applicant,” the planners said in their delegated report, “a five year housing land supply of deliverable housing sites can be demonstrated.”

The issue of the council’s housing land supply has been contested at recent planning appeals, and the council’s officers are confident that their position has been confirmed.

In rejecting the proposal they also say that it would “eliminate” an existing pocket of open space characterising the local area as a small hamlet.

The decision was made by planners using their delegated powers without going to a committee of elected councillors. The decision was announced on Friday (April 17).

The application was also opposed by residents of Lower End, and the parish council which is concerned over the impact adding 53 homes may have.

One objector wrote: “This development would completely overwhelm and change the character of Lower End Wavendon.

“Currently there are only 33 houses in the community and 53 is going to double the size and change forever the rural appearance of Lower End.”

The developer has a right to appeal the decision by taking it to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate.

Planners slam door shut on developer’s plan for homes in countryside near Milton Keynes