For the second time in five years villagers have fought successfully to halt a 10 acre field being turned over to a vast housing estate.

When the application came before East Cambridgeshire District Council planning committee the number of villagers who had written in opposing the scheme had rose from 47 in 2014 to 79 in 2019.

Gladman Developments originally applied for 110 houses on land south of 18 Wilburton Road, Haddenham, in 2014 and, after being refused, later withdrew an appeal.

The latest application, from Yorkshire based Land Allocation Ltd - a recently formed property company - was refused on the recommendation of council officers.

The committee accepted that the scheme "would give rise to significant adverse impacts" which outweighed any benefits.

The council was also worried about access and felt not enough information had been provided.

Council officials also pointed out to the strain on NHS facilities locally and there was no offer of cash to help with infrastructure improvements.

Councillors agreed that access from the A1123 Haddenham Road/Wilburton Road junction could be "detrimental to highway safety" and that the developers had not submitted sufficient information to show otherwise.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) pointed out that the scheme was at odds with the 2015 Local Plan over the growth of Haddenham.

"The plan anticipated that 103 new dwellings would be built in Haddenham in the period up to 2012 -2031," it said.

But in 2012 a bid for 24 affordable homes in Northumbra Close had put the village well ahead of its target even before the plan came into being.

Since that date, another successful application for 59 homes, including 19 affordable, also outside the development envelope, at West End had further exceeded the planned number of homes for Haddenham.

"To add a further 110 houses to the already excessive rate of growth does not represent sustainable development," said the CPRE.

And the parish council said approving this application "seriously undermines the work done to identify suitable housing land supply" within the village.

Officers said the Local Plan had identified that Haddenham is capable of absorbing small-medium sized housing developments which can be successfully supported by the village.

"In this respect, it is not the sustainability of Haddenham as a village that is called into question, but the sustainability of the scale of the development proposed in this location," they added.