CONTROVERSIAL plans to block up a public right of way as part of a 224-home development in Cockermouth have cleared another hurdle at a heated meeting.

Members of the planning panel spent almost four hours debating “reserved matters” for Strawberry How Road plans even though the principles of the development have already been approved.

Story Homes already has permission to the build the homes, and the purpose of the meeting was to thrash out the finer details of the layout including right of way issues.

But feelings ran high at the meeting, with one objector branding the panel a “disgrace” after he was prevented from raising concerns over the legality of the development because this was not the “right forum”.

Allerdale Council will now launch a statutory consultation to block off a 335-metre stretch of the public footpath and create a permanent pedestrian through the new estate itself.

But the meeting heard that if the council receives a single objection by the end of the statutory consultation period, they will be unable to confirm the order and it will be passed up to the planning inspector for determination.

Councillors were asked repeatedly to focus on the plans in front of them and told by officers that they could not revisit planning permissions already granted.

Kevin Kerrigan, head of place development, said: “It’s not up for debate. You can’t go back and revisit a decision you made previously.”

But members of the panel continued to raise concerns over the effect of the plans on traffic flow.

Among the letters of objection to the proposals were two submitted by ward councillor and council leader Alan Smith, and councillor Christine Smith.

In the first letter, which was read out at the meeting, they said they believed Cockermouth had been “badly let down” by the county council’s highway department and by the developer.

It added: “The bottleneck at the top of Kirkgate gets worse by the month. Highways have not looked at alleviating the problem, which in simple terms would be solved by a mini roundabout.”

“I know for a fact that there are over 4,000 traffic movements hitting the bottleneck every day. This comes from the County Highways’ own data.

“It seems that traffic congestion is now a norm with county Highways.”

But Simon Sharp, planning and building control manager, insisted that the council’s approach had been “robust.

Story Homes received outline planning permission for the proposed 224 houses at the same time as it was given detailed consent for the 96 homes under construction in phase one of the development, off Strawberry How.

More than 200 objections have been submitted in response to the plans. Concerns include pressure on roads and services, loss of green spaces, impact on wildlife and increased flood risk. A petition calling for the development to be halted has been signed by 573 people.

Once phase one of the estate is complete, a new bus service is set to be introduced which the developer says will encourage new residents to reduce their use of private vehicles..

A route through the site is set to be provided during construction so people can continue to access the open countryside beyond its eastern boundary.

Story Homes has planned 100 affordable one, two and three-bedroom flats, bungalows and houses. Seventy five of those will be for rent through a housing association, with the rest for discounted sale.