CONTROVERSIAL plans to build more than 60 new homes in Drury look set to be rejected.

Muller Property’s application to demolish one house on Drury Lane and create 66 new ones on land to the north has been met with stern opposition from the community.

A petition with 375 signatures has been submitted to Flintshire Council ahead of the proposals being considered, along with around 170 letters of objection.

Officers from the authority’s planning department are now recommending that the scheme should be turned down.

In a report, chief officer for planning Andrew Farrow said it would harm an area of green barrier land.

He said: “The general principle of housing development is considered acceptable within a settlement boundary.

“However, in this application it is also proposed that an area of additional land adjacent to but outside of the settlement boundary is also included within the application site, with this land being within the open countryside and a green barrier.

“The supporting planning statement makes no reference to the impact of development on the green barrier and does not explain why it is necessary to extend the site outside the settlement boundary into the green barrier.

“Inappropriate development should not be granted except in “very exceptional circumstances” where other considerations clearly outweigh the harm which such development would do the green barrier.

“This is a stringent and demanding test and housing development is clearly “inappropriate” development within a green barrier that is contrary to both local and national planning policies.”

Residents in Drury have said that GP appointments and school places are already difficult to access, and they believe the new development would add to the problem.

Concerns have also been raised about plans to demolish the property at 81 Drury Lane, which is joined onto a neighbouring home.

Speaking previously to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Hannah Catherall, who lives next door but one from the house, said: “They think we’ve got a housing crisis in Drury and there aren’t enough houses, which is not the case at all.

“There used to be 100 kids at the school when I was there many years ago. It’s fit to bursting now and some of them are in portacabins, it’s not great.”

However, Muller claimed that approval of the application would deliver ‘much needed’ new homes.

The company has already lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate as it said Flintshire Council had taken too long to determine the proposals.

The plans will go before the local authority’s planning committee on Wednesday, March 6.