A developer has lodged an appeal after its plans to build 80 homes in Sawtry were refused by councillors.

Huntingdonshire District Council’s development management panel said Linden Homes’ plans for dozens of new houses east of Glebe Farm, in Gidding Road, was an over-development of the site and could have a negative impact on neighbouring properties.

Outline planning permission to develop the site was granted by the district council in April last year but, as a condition of the permission, the developer was required to return to the council with specific plans for the number of houses and layout.

Agents acting for Linden Homes presented detailed plans for the nine-acre site to councillors in October and the application was recommended for approval by district council planning officer Andrew Cundy.

But councillors disagreed and decided to refuse the application, saying: “The development, by reason of the layout will result in the over-development of the site, which in turn will have a negative impact on neighbouring properties to the east by way of being overbearing and result in an un-neighbourly sense of enclosure.”

On January 30, Linden Homes formally appealed the decision to the Planning Inspectorate, however, and an inquiry has now been launched.

The inspector will make a site visit in the spring before evidence will be considered at an inquiry hearing. A final decision is expected to be made by the summer.

The news comes as a fresh planning application was submitted to the district council this week by another housing developer, Nottingham-based KLER Group.

The group has applied for outline planning permission for a development of 295 houses on a 26-acre parcel of land, also off Gidding Road.