AN OUTLINE application for 28 homes at the Gold Hill Business Park at Gold Hill, Child Okeford has been refused by Dorset Council.

The application, for the Beehive Self Storage Company site, had attracted almost 100 letters – the majority of them against the scheme.

It is the second proposal for housing on the site to have been turned down.

Dorset Council decided that to build there would be unsustainable with limited access to local services for future occupiers and would result in a harmful impact on the surrounding area, including the setting of Hambledon Hill.

The 3.7 hectare site is on the western side of Lower Common Road, outside the defined settlement boundary for Child Okeford.

The site has been the subject of a planning appeal when an inspector dismissed an application for 68 homes saying the site was unsustainable and there was no clear need to release land for housing outside the defined development area and that building there would affect the setting of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Child Okeford parish council had supported rejecting the application and 90 people had written to Dorset Council objecting to the proposed homes. Their comments included that the proposal was speculative and premature to the new Local Plan, was unsustainable and outside the development area, was not needed for the village, had a lack of footpaths, would bring increased traffic and that the site was liable to flood.

Comments in support said there was a lack of affordable homes in the village and the development might allow younger families and first time buyers to get on the property ladder.