A bid to extend a mobile home site to include a further 30 units – refused by East Cambs District Council- will be decided by a Government inspector.

Tingdene Ltd has lodged an appeal against refusal of their plan which would have seen a three acre field next to an existing site in Witchford become a mobile home park.

The refusal by East Cambs Council followed an original refusal as long ago as 1989 when it was ruled “contrary to policies and outside the built up framework of the village”.

More recently the council refused the application for the Bedwell Hey Lane site on the grounds that little had changed and it was still outside the boundaries of the village. Exceptions were allowed but the council said these could only happen “where general marketing housing would be appropriate, i.e. within the settlement boundary”.

The council felt also that Anglian Water had put forward a strong case, arguing that “the development will lead to an unacceptable risk of flooding downstream. Therefore a drainage strategy will need to be prepared to determine mitigation measures”.

The Environment Agency said they would need a full review of flood risk and argued that Tingdene had not provided the information needed.

Council planners said the site had a “high probability” of flooding and such development “is classified as highly vulnerable”.

Alternative sites within the district for housing were available and officers felt such schemes “as far as possible be directed towards areas with the lowest probability of flooding”.

Tingdene has appealed the decision and a Government inspector will determine their case in the coming weeks. There will be no public inquiry as such – the appeal is being dealt with through written representations.