A BUILDER has failed in his bid to extend a village by turning a horse paddock with a stable into a group of houses in the North Yorkshire countryside.
Philip Mead of Northmead Development of Stillington wanted to build five homes on land near Huby, north of York.
When Hambleton District Council turned down its plans, the company appealed to a planning inspector.
After visiting the site of the proposed development, inspector John Dowsett dismissed the appeal.
"I have found that the appeal site is not a suitable location for residential development and would cause harm to the character and appearance of the countryside," he concluded.
The inspector decided the site west of Little Burn, Huby, lay 700 metres outside the village of Huby and a kilometre from Sutton-on-the-Forest.
It was therefore on land that the local authority's planning strategy decreed could not be used for housing.
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