PLANS for two new homes and four log cabins on a Cheshire West estate have been knocked back by the council’s planning department.

An application had been submitted for the new properties along with an access road to Forest Scout Camp on 6.5 hectares of woodland at the Abbots Moss Hall estate on Tarporley Road in Oakmere.

To the south of the site is Nunsmere Lake and Nunsmere Hall Hotel and to the north is the Whitegate Way, beyond that is Forest Scout Camp.

Forest Camp is a scout camp used for large scouting events with children and adults attending from the North West and further afield.

A planning statement submitted on behalf of the applicant said that over the past year the site hosted approximately 7,500 attendees for ‘camper nights’ along with 1,000 day visitors.

It also said the proposed development was intended to bring forward a number of benefits, including resolving transport and access issues for residents in Overdale Lane and the surrounding roads.

The proposed residential dwellings were intended to be tied to Abbots Moss Hall Estate and would only have been available to members of the estate, the statement said.

But Cheshire West and Cheshire Council’s planning department have rejected the plans, saying they would ‘harm’ the character and beauty of the Cheshire countryside.

The decision said: “The proposed residential development would not be located within a settlement identified in Development Plan as the most sustainable locations for new development.

“The proposed dwelling houses would be located within the countryside, not requiring a countryside location and could be accommodated within one of the identified settlements.

“The development would not be readily accessible to schools, employment, shops, leisure or community facilities, and would be primarily reliant on the use of private motor vehicles.

“The proposal would introduce a new dwelling houses with associated development and paraphernalia, would erode the open and undeveloped rural character and appearance of this part of the countryside, thereby harming the intrinsic character and beauty of the Cheshire countryside.”