COUNCILLORS are being advised to ignore a "golden opportunity" to take about 100,000 heavy and domestic vehicle movements a year from narrow village roads in the Vale of Evesham.

Persimmon Homes have put in a planning application for 18 homes with roads and open space on 1.33 hectares on the Ferryfast site in Boat Lane, Offenham. But the scheme is being recommended for refusal at today's (Thursday) meeting of Wychavon District Council planning committee.

Ferryfast director Bob Byrd said the development would mean the company could finance a move for its produce trucking business from Honeybourne Airfield to Vale Park, where permission has already been given, removing the 100,000 traffic movements, particularly in Bretforton and Badsey.

But both Ferryfast and Persimmon argue that a decision on the application should be deferred until consultations on the Draft Supplementary Planning Guidance notes about Lorries in the Vale of Evesham are completed.

Mr Byrd said the move to the new more suitable premises would create new jobs, but he added: "Unfortunately, we can't afford to do one without the other and we hope the committee will be sympathetic to our cause."

He said the revised application was for fewer houses and in addition to reducing traffic movements, Persimmon had produced a plan to solve major problems with the village drainage and sewage system. There would also be a major improvement to the village school without the need for building an extra classroom.

But Offenham Parish Council has come out strongly against the plans, pointing out the site is outside the village plan, the development could set a precedent and that 18 houses was over-development of the site. They also say that the village school is at capacity, any development would place an unbearable strain on an already overloaded infrastructure, there would be a significant increase in traffic volume and a loss of prime market garden growing land.