A bid to build 10 homes in a Broads village has been rejected again after developers tried to overturn an earlier decision.

Barbara and Terence Green of Greenfields Properties Ltd had applied for permission last year to build the homes on land off Green Lane in Filby, near Great Yarmouth.

The plan would also have seen Green Lane widened to allow easier access to the properties.

People from several surrounding villages objected to the proposals - their concerns spanning from flooding issues and noise, to the effect on a village that has already been targeted by developers.

Planning officers at the borough council rejected the plan in November 2020, stating that the homes would have gone up on a “relatively isolated site” and would have been “intruding into open countryside”, as well as occupying productive agricultural land.

They also referred to the lack of a legal agreement to secure affordable housing.

An appeal was launched with the Planning Inspectorate in February of this year.

Inspector Sarah Tudhope visited the site to see it for herself in July and a ruling was issued on November 15.

The inspector said that she gave “considerable weight” to the fact that the homes would have gone up outside of Filby’s settlement boundary.

She warned too that “services and facilities to meet the day to day needs of future occupiers are somewhat limited”.

The land is currently used to graze horses, she said, and the plan would have seen the “harmful and unjustified loss” of highly versatile agricultural land.

She conceded however that a plan to make two of the 10 houses affordable, submitted as part of the appeal, would be “a benefit of the proposal”.

She also acknowledged that there would have been an economic benefit to the homes going up, thanks to “council tax revenue, local trade during the construction phase and ongoing local expenditure by future occupiers”.

She added: “There would also be social benefits including the engagement by future occupiers in community activities and groups”.

These social and economic benefits could only be given “modest weight” she said however, and after taking all matters into consideration, dismissed the appeal.