A bid to build four large detached two-storey homes in Whitwick has been refused.

The planning application submitted by Cademan Development Ltd to construct the properties - with carports and associated access - off Loughborough Road has been turned down by North West Leicestershire District Council.

The proposed development site is within both the National Forest and Charnwood Forest Regional Park and a document on behalf of the applicant describes the proposed homes as 'avoiding complexity, drama and ambiguity' and of 'sensitive design, selected to preserve the character of the setting and the immediate environs'.

However, the council did not concur.

A report recommending refusal says: "The proposal is not considered to respect the character and appearance of the National Forest by virtue of its siting and the urbanising effect on the approach to the village is considered to adversely affect the character and appearance of the National Forest and the wider countryside, and fails to protect or enhance the landscape of the Charnwood Forest Regional Park.

"Any social and economic benefits afforded to the proposal are demonstrably outweighed by the significant adverse environmental impacts and therefore the proposal is not considered to represent a sustainable form of development, contrary to the aims of the National Planning Policy Framework."

The report also states the proposed development would be located on unallocated greenfield land outside the Limits to Development, as defined on the proposals map to the adopted North West Leicestershire Local Plan.

"The social sustainability merits of the application...are not considered to be refuseable, and the development would result in some limited economic benefits associated with the construction of the dwellings.

"It would, however, ...result in the substantial urbanisation of a greenfield site which would diminish its present open character and represent an incongruous encroachment of development into the rural environment which should be protected for its own sake."

It also adds that the development would 'exacerbate ribbon development'.