Plans from Cumbria County Council for five new homes to be built in a village have taken a step forward.

The council was given outline planning permission in February 2017 for a residential development in Rockcliffe on land north of Rockcliffe School.

Details of the layout, scale, appearance, access and landscaping for the development have now been approved by Carlisle City Council’s development committee.

Committee members had expressed concerns about traffic on the nearby road when the plans were considered at the committee’s virtual meeting on May 22, and a decision was deferred to allow a virtual site visit to take place as a number of objectors and Rockcliffe parish council had suggested it was dangerous.

Councillors still had reservations about the lack of a footpath connecting the development to the school but voted in favour of planning officer Stephen Daniel’s recommendation to approve.

Councillor Pamela Birks said: “The concern that I still have is where the entrance is to the site, which is right opposite Ordnance Cottage, and there not being any form of pathway going down to the school.”

Other concerns included the fact that the houses would include chimneys and whether that would comply with the push to address the climate emergency, and parking at school times.

Mr Daniel said the road needed to be widened due to a condition to make the application acceptable, which would leave no space for a footpath.

He added that it would be “difficult” to refuse an application based on the presence of chimneys in the designs for new houses.

Councillor Raymond Tinnion, who chairs the committee, asked county council officer Peter Allan if he could feed back to his colleagues the committee’s concerns about the lack of a footpath and whether anything could be done, particularly due to children potentially needing to travel to the nearby school.

Councillor Paul Nedved questioned what speed limit was in place and was told by Mr Allan that the road was a 30mph zone with no proposals to change that.