ANY appeal against the refusal of planning permission to build 22 homes in the centre of Urchfont should go to a public inquiry, Kennet councillors have decided.

John Booth, chairman of Kennet District Council's regulatory committee, which last Thursday threw out a second planning application to redevelop Manor Farm Yard, a sensitive site in the "quiet heart" of the village, said a planning inspector should get the true feeling of villagers when deliberating on the application.

This followed an unremitting campaign by objectors to farmer John Snook's proposal to build 22 houses, nine of them "affordable", in the farm yard which has lain largely unused and derelict for some years.

The protesters fear that so many houses in the centre of the village will irrevocably change its character.

Thirty villagers crowded into the council chamber on Thursday afternoon to hear the debate. Under the new public forum rules, several of them were able to express their own feelings on the scheme.

Peter Cook, who lives in the High Street, said he could not understand why this application had been submitted, as it was very similar to one that had been rejected by councillors last November, after they had visited the site next to the duck pond.

John Kirkland, chairman of the Kennet branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, asked councillors to stand firm in protecting this special area of a special village. He said: "This is one of the best areas in Kennet district. Please keep it that way."

Peter Newell, chairman of Urchfont Parish Council, said that Urchfont boasted the first conservation area in Wiltshire, and with good reason. He said: "The parish council is not against development of this site in principle. In fact, we produced a planning brief for it, but it was disappointing that neither the applicant nor Kennet District Council officers were prepared to discuss this with us."

The only public speaker in favour of the plan was Mark Chadwick of Hunter Page Planning, which are acting as agents for Mr Snook.

He said the new scheme had taken note of the reasons for refusal of the previous application and had reduced the mass of the development and simplified the detail on the houses.

He brought councillors' attention to the fact that their own officers approved of the scheme and had recommended it for approval. He said any reduction of the number of houses on the site would be contrary to the council's own rules regarding making best use of derelict land.

Urchfont's district councillor, Colin Stone, said he would be abstaining in the vote. He added that the proposed density of housing was well within national guidelines. He said the farmyard was a terrible eyesore that must be sorted out at the earliest opportunity.

Coun Philip Brown said the plans were good plans but not right for that site. There were too many houses for the conservation area and in an area of minimum change.

Coun Rosemary Cummins recognised the great many concessions made by the applicant but didn't see that they overcame the impact of the scheme on the area. She said: "It is important to listen to the people who live in the village and we must play our part in protecting it."

Coun Jerry Kunkler said the farmyard looked like Steptoe and Son's junkyard and, if the council kept throwing out plans to redevelop it, Urchfont could end up with worse.

A motion to refuse planning permission was passed with two votes against and one abstention.

Mr Snook has told the Gazette he would prefer to see a small number of substantial houses on the site, but Kennet's planning officers were not prepared to countenance that. An earlier plan for 14 houses on the site, with no social housing, was rejected by officers using delegated powers.