PLANS to install five camping pods and six holiday cabins have been recommended for approval.

Carlisle City Council’s development panel will meet today at 10am in the Civic Centre.

And one of the items for discussion is the siting of the pods and cabins to create hospitality provision at Castletown Farm in Redhills, Rockcliffe.

The application for planning permission, which council officers have recommended for approval, has been submitted by Castletown Estates.

Plans involve siting the pods and cabins on a 10280 square metre parcel of woodland to the west of the farm.

Illustrations submitted with the application show the proposed pods and cabins arranged along a central access track in the woodland with parking provided in the existing farm yard.

In response to a site notice and consultation with two neighbouring properties, there application has received 27 objections.

Concerns raised by respondents include increasing traffic on the roads, the impact on the public footpath and the “visual impact on the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”

Rockcliffe Parish Council raised concerns at a previous stage in the planning process around increasing traffic through the village and the visual impact from the public footpath.

But the report prepared for councillors today reads: “These concerns have been listened to by the applicant and several measures put in place to mitigate the concerns raised perhaps the most significant one being a commitment to scale the size of the development down in the first instance to a maximum of 5 units with a continual ongoing assessment of the impact caused as these 5 units are phased in and in any event not proceeding beyond 5 units without express agreement with the parish council at a point in the future.”

Officers are recommending that the current proposal is approved with conditions.

They said: “The concerns of the objectors are noted, and it is recognised that the development might have the potential to increase noise and disturbance given the relative isolation of the application site. In mitigation, the development is relatively small scale, the current use of the site as a livery stable together with the orientation of the pods and cabins.

“The proposal would not have such a significant impact on the living conditions of the occupiers of neighbouring properties through loss of privacy or intensification of noise and disturbance.”