A plan to create the conditions for five ‘Grand Designs’ style dreamhouses to be built on the edge of Highworth has been refused again.

Adrian Sykes of Skye Property Group applied in 2020 to be able to design and prepare five plots of land behind Barn Cottage on the A361 Swindon Road on the southern edges of the hilltop town.

The site is a large paddock behind the cottage and other houses in a small parade of homes along the busy road.

That application was refused permission by Swindon Borough Council, and then again by a government-appointed planning inspector when Mr Sykes appealed against the original decision.

The developer tried again this summer but has come up against the same response.

His application was different in that this time the proposal is to demolish Barn Cottage to create access to the site from the main road.

A short access road would be built with the five custom-built houses arrayed on either side of it.

In the design and access statement as part of the new application Skye Property Group said: “Our self-build strategy is premised on the following: Installing the serviced infrastructure to the plots and selling the plots on to those registered on the council’s self-build register.”

It was emphatic to state that there is a real need for such houses: “We say that the self-build demand in the area is an insurmountable demand! We already have multiple lines of enquiry in connection with these self-build plots and we haven’t even marketed them yet!”

The company also takes issue with the planning inspector’s decision that the original application represented ‘backland development’ and was out of keeping with the ribbon development along Swindon Road seen in the area.

The new application said that, depending on the response of the Swindon Borough Council, a legal challenge could be made to the original appeal decision.

Nevertheless, both nearby neighbours and Highworth Parish Council objected again to the scheme.

The  Parish Council said: ”Councillors strongly recommend refusal - access and

egress onto the A361 is too narrow to allow two cars and this would have an

unacceptable impact on Highway Safety. As supported by the inspector at appeal councillors consider this development harmful to the character of the landscape.”

Borough Council planners were of the same mind, turning down the proposal saying: “The proposed development would erode the current level of openness in the vicinity and fail to reflect existing form causing harm to the character and appearance of the rural landscape."