AN application by Mulberry Homes (Ropley) Ltd to build nine new two and three-bed homes on the site of The Chequers Inn at the junction of Gascoigne Lane and the A31 Winchester Road has been dismissed at appeal.

The application was originally turned down by East Hampshire District Council’s (EHDC) planning committee on December 8 last year on grounds that part of the site lies outside the settlement policy boundary for the village, in an area defined as countryside, and that there was no evidence to justify the development as meeting a genuine need for a countryside location.

The decision flew in the face of public opinion, with many in the village welcoming the Mulberry Homes application as a way of tidying up an ‘eyesore’ site.

While not offering a low-cost social housing element, the proposal would, residents felt, provide the type of affordable, small size family homes currently lacking in the village.

Of the 34 public comments registered on the EHDC planning portal, 33 were in support of the application, with most echoing the sentiment: “The pub looks an eyesore and needs pulling down.”

Determined by of a public hearing and site visit on April 4, the appeal was overseen by planning inspector Sheila Holden, who concluded that while much of the site lies within the settlement boundary of Ropley and would, she felt, be a suitable location for new housing development, “the proposed layout would encroach into the countryside and cause significant harm to the character and appearance of the area”.

As a result, Ms Holden was “not persuaded that the community support for a redevelopment of the site was a sufficient reason to justify an exception to the development plan’s requirement to contain new development within settlement boundaries”.