PLANS for 12 new homes in Whitehaven has been submitted to Copeland Council.

Swift Homes Ltd is applying for full planning permission for the housing development on land to the rear of Rannerdale Drive.

The proposals include a variety of three and four bedroom properties. Swift Homes Ltd says the layout combined with the "exceptionally high quality" designs will "enhance the immediate surrounding area".

Thirty-six parking spaces have been proposed, including two off-road parking spaces for each home and visitor parking zones.

But the development of the agricultural land has been been a contentious issue for over a year.

A former applicant - North Associates - applied and then withdrew two outline applications for 35 homes on a larger section of land.

Last July, it then applied for outline planning permission for nine homes on a smaller area of land. The application was approved by Copeland councillors despite the proposals prompting 36 letters of objection.

It is this same area of land that Swift Homes Ltd is now applying for permission to build 12 homes on.

A design and access statement from Swift Homes Ltd says: "The proposal is for a low density executive development comprising 12 detached executive dwellings with associated infrastructure and landscaping.

"Whilst acknowledging that any proposal for ten or more dwellings constitutes a "major" application, in planning terms the reality is that 12 dwellings is not major in terns of housing numbers.

"The difference between nine dwellings approved on the outline consent and the twelve dwellings now proposed is at best marginal. The nature of the development now proposed will in fact go some way to meeting the acknowledged deficit for detached executive style homes in the borough."

According to Copeland Council, this proposed development "does not accord with the provisions of the Development Plan in force in the area in which the land to which the application relates is situated".

Members of the public can look at copies of the application, plans and other documents, at Whitehaven Market Hall.