A PLAN to build on green space designed to ‘protect’ homes from a busy motorway could still be allowed to go ahead despite being rejected by the council.

The application for ‘principle’ permission to build up to five homes on green space off Trotshill Lane East in Warndon Villages fell at the first hurdle when it was rejected by planners at Worcester City Council in April.

The council said it could not support building on the “significant gap” between homes and the motorway.

READ MORE: Man who tried to argue building was 'caravan' told to demolish it

But now applicant John Glackin has appealed to the government’s planning inspectors, which has the power to overrule the council, to get the decision overturned.

The plan would see the new homes built next to Trotshill Farm and the Georgian-era farmhouse to the east of the 2014-approved Coach House.

Planners said the application by Mr Glackin clashed with all the council’s policies on conservation and ‘significant gaps’ – which are supposed to protect land between to keep towns, cities and villages separate and ‘distinct’ from each other - and the important green fields should remain untouched.

The council added that despite the plan being “relatively small-scale” it was still “unacceptable” and would undermine all its rules on protecting green space.

The area, which is home to a number of listed buildings, is already heavily protected because it lies within a conservation area and is also classed as ‘sensitive’ – with archaeologists believing it to have been populated around the time of the Domesday Book in 1086.

READ MORE: New plan to build flats behind Worcester's Firefly pub in Lowesmoor

The council’s archaeologist did not object to the plan but said the lack of information in the application meant they were unable to decide whether there was anything of ‘high significance’ still in the ground.

The space was also earmarked in 2016 in the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) as land that should be protected and has stayed in the current version which is currently undergoing a review.

Worcester Civic Society said building homes on the green space would “erode the character” of the valuable land for Warndon Villages.

Warndon Parish Council also objected to the homes criticising the plan for building on the fields which ‘protected’ Warndon Villages from the noisy and polluted M5.