A developer is hoping dropping 10 homes from its plans to build hundreds of homes on the edge of Burwell will help it get councillor support. 

East Cambridgeshire District Council is due to decide whether 271 new homes can be built north of Newmarket Road. 

Outline planning permission was granted back in 2019 to build up to 350 homes across the wider site. 

Applications have been made for the first two phases of this development to build 271 of these homes. 

Plans for the third phase of the development are expected to come forward at a later date. 

The developers – Vistry East Midlands and Vistry Homes Ltd – originally proposed to build 281 homes across the first two phases of the development. 

However, at a planning committee meeting in August councillors said too many homes were planned and asked the developer to look at the plans again. 

Amended plans that drop 10 homes from the development and increase the number of two-bedroom homes that will be made available to privately buy, are now due to be presented to councillors at a planning committee meeting next week (November 1). 

A report published ahead of the meeting said the removal of the 10 homes helped to mitigate concerns around the balance of development across the wider site. 

Officers said that the change to the mix of market housing and social housing had also been “significantly revised” to address councillor’s concerns. 

The report said: “The previous scheme was recommended by officers for approval on balance. 

“The revised scheme is considered to be a substantial improvement on the previous scheme where identified weaknesses have been addressed. 

“It is the opinion of officers that the revised scheme now proposed achieves a high standard of design quality and complies with the local plans as a whole. 

“On that basis, the application is recommended for approval.”