A DECISION is set to be made on building more than 80 new homes in a village.

Malvern Hills District Council will be meeting to rule on a plan by Lioncourt Homes to build 83 homes in Martley near Worcester with a recommendation from the planning department that it is given the go-ahead.

There are two identical plans on the table for 83 homes in Martley after Lioncourt Homes appealed to the government’s planning inspectors to make a decision after Malvern Hills District Council failed to meet its statutory deadline over an application it first put forward in 2021.

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The same plan was then submitted in July with councillors now expected to make a decision.

Lioncourt Homes submitted the plans to the council at the end of 2021 with an unusual year-long public consultation attracting a lot of objections from villagers in Martley but very little else.

The developer has now appealed to the government’s planning inspectors over ‘non-determination’ which means the council missed the statutory deadline of 13 weeks to make a decision.

Nevertheless, Lioncourt Homes submitted a duplicate of its 2021 application to Malvern Hills District Council which, despite the ongoing appeal, planners had to assess for a decision to be made in the usual way.

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This comes just months after government inspectors overruled the district council and approved a 52-home plan in Martley.

The land has been earmarked as a potential site for up to 71 new homes in the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP), the key county planning blueprint which sets out where thousands of new homes will be built in the next 20 years – which is still under review having faced years of delays.

Malvern Hills District Council turned down a plan by Jessup Brothers and Citizen Housing to build 52 homes in Martley last year but despite the land being in open countryside and outside the agreed development boundary for the village, but was overruled because it was unable to show it had plans to meet the demand for housing across the district in the next five years.

The plan will now see new homes allowed to be built as well alongside ten self-build plots and space for a new GP surgery.

Malvern Hills District Council’s planning committee meets from 6pm in Malvern on September 6.