GREEN space and having somewhere to play won out against development proposals for a council-owned plot off Hetherly Road in Weymouth.

Councillors turned down their officers recommendation to allow up to five homes on the site in favour of keeping the site as an open space – which it has been since homes were built in the area mainly during the 1980s.

Palmer Homes want to build the detached properties on the quarter of a hectare plot either side of a footpath which cuts across the site linking the road with St Andrew’s Avenue.

Two of the homes would have attached garages with the others having off-street parking.

But borough planning committee councillors voted almost unanimously against the outline proposal after hearing how the area was valued as an open space by immediate neighbours and those in the area who walked through it.

Cllr Kate Wheller said she could see the value of the council selling the land for development “but I am not sure that it outweighs the value of it as an amenity,” she said.

“There are other play areas, but they are some way away. If you have small children you want them to play close by,” she said.

Cllr Christine James said if the development were allowed the houses would be “squashed in”.

“We are continually told we have an epidemic of obese children yet they’re being deprived of land to run around and play games, to kick a ball…its seems that every bit of land we are being asked to build on. But what are we going to achieve…in the scheme of things does this small site make any difference?”

In addition to voting down the scheme the committee also instructed its officer to take back the message to the borough council that it should not be selling the site.