VILLAGERS have secured another victory in their battle against dogged developers looking to knock three Hartford homes down and build a care home in their place.

New Care Ltd has submitted two planning applications in the past two years to knock down 433, 435 and 437 Chester Road – building a 69-bed care home in their place, plus four detached houses in one of the proposals.

Both schemes were recommended for approval by Cheshire West and Chester Council planning officers last year, but turned down by planning committee members at meetings in July and December.

New Care appealed the first decision, which also included the four houses, but now the Planning Inspectorate has dismissed the appeal.

In a report explaining her decision, inspector Sarah Manchester said that while the four houses would be in keeping with the area, the care home would be 'conspicuously out of scale'.

She said: "While its height would be consistent with neighbouring dwellings, the care home would span nearly the entire width of the three residential plots.

"The resulting disproportionately wide front elevation and road frontage, with its large parking court, would be markedly out of step with – and it would not respect the rhythm and spacing of – surrounding properties and plots.

"The care home would also be considerably deeper than surrounding dwellings."

Ms Manchester described the scheme's design as an 'irregular shape with several interconnected blocks' that would be 'particularly dominant and conspicuous when travelling along Chester Road'.

She added that the appearance of the care home would have an 'urbanising effect that would erode the character of the village' and would therefore go against CWAC's local plan.

Both proposals were deeply unpopular in the Hartford community – with around 70 objections from residents insisting the proposal went against the Hartford neighbourhood plan, while local councillors also spoke out against each scheme during the planning committee meetings.

Hartford resident Cliff Hall, who addressed the planning committee last year, told the Guardian: "At the outset, there was a local feeling that this development was unreal and a brutal imposition.

"[The neighbourhood plan] contains a policy statement that development proposals are to 'reflect scale, density and character of the surrounding built environment’.

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"This requirement was understood by residents, councillors, most of the planning committee and, ultimately, the Planning Inspectorate on appeal.

"Hopefully, other brutal development proposals will not expect a smooth ride in the future and the planners will listen more carefully and weigh up local comment."