Councillors turn down plans for 20 micro holiday cabins near Morpeth

Members of Northumberland County Council’s Castle Morpeth Local Area Committee unanimously agreed with the planning officers’ recommendation to turn down the change of use application for land adjacent to the N1 Golf Centre at a recent meeting.

There were a total of 48 objections. In addition, two petitions with a combined total of 92 signatures were lodged and Mitford Parish Council was against the bid.

The centre wanted to create up to 20 plots for ‘micro’ holiday cabins. The application site is within close proximity to housing within Tranwell Woods.

Economic and tourism benefits were highlighted in the submitted documents, but the officers said that they did not constitute very special circumstances to outweigh the harm to the green belt.

They also said the application ‘fails to demonstrate how surface water and flood risk will be appropriately mitigated on site’ and ‘fails to demonstrate how foul sewage will be appropriately disposed of at the site’.

The site is in the Longhorsley ward of county council leader Glen Sanderson, who said after the meeting: “I agreed with the local residents’ reasons for why this proposal should be turned down.

“Whilst there is no doubting that Northumberland can develop its tourism offer further, getting the right application in the right place is hugely important.

“The residents live in a particularly quiet part of the county and they rightly highlighted that the area would be damaged by this type of development.

“I will continue to do all I can to highlight that we must respect what we have in Tranwell Woods.”