'It could gobble up Dunchurch' Rugby councillors throw out plan to build five detached homes on Rainsbrook Valley

How the site would have looked. To the left is Barby Lane, where it meets Westwood Road.

Worries over the impact that five new houses will have on a sensitive landscape area to the south of Rugby have led to outline plans being thrown out.

Residents living near to the proposed site in the grounds of 25 Barby Lane said the building of the homes would impact on Rainsbrook Valley which was the reason why a number of previous planning applications in the area had been turned down both by the council and at appeal.

Neighbour Barbara Brown told this week’s (March 9) planning meeting of Rugby Borough Council that while there was need for housing in the district - an infill development such as this was not the way forward and the scheme would also impact on those living nearby.

She said: “The character and aspect of houses in Fellows Way will be affected to such a radical extent that I believe it becomes a material consideration. A recent request for a similar infil in a neighbouring property was turned down for these reasons and it affected fewer houses than this one.

“It is vital developments are planned in and are not haphazard. Rugby does need houses but these are the wrong ones and in the wrong place. I know that if this goes through there will be others to follow because there will be nothing to stop them.”

Councillors heard that a number of other applications along Barby Road had been refused.

Cllr Tim Willis (Con, Wolston and the Lawfords) said: “I have a problem with the parking and the ingress/egress on any of these infill sites. If number 25 is approved then what’s to stop 23 and 21?”

And Cllr Neil Sandison (Lib Dem, Eastlands) added: “I would like to move refusal on the grounds that it encroaches upon the landscape sensitive area of the Rainsbrook Valley.

“For some years now some of us have wanted to see that areas become a countryside parkland with only limited development on properties sitting within that landscape rather than have this battle every time an application comes in.

“This is the buffer zone that stops us gobbling up Dunchurch and the next village after that. We must fight to preserve this important and sensitive landscape area.”

Councillors voted unanimously to refuse planning permission.