Residents fighting plans for 88 new homes on land just metres from a busy motorway have won their battle after cllrs threw out the application amid noise and air quality concerns for future residents.

South Staffordshire District Council received 80 objections to the proposals for land north east of Cherrybrook Drive, between the canal and the M6, at Penkridge.

The application, put forward by Persimmon Homes, was recommended for approval by council officers ahead of Tuesday's planning committee meeting (September 15). But committee members voted to refuse permission by 10 votes to two.

MP Sir Gavin Williamson also opposed the application, which included a proposed access from Kentmere Close and was described as "a small cul-de-sac with limited parking".

He added: "There would be a huge increase of vehicles and the road would not be suitable for this amount of traffic.

"The extra vehicles would cause a huge increase in noise and pollution spoiling the character and nature of the village.

"Penkridge Medical Centre is already under a huge strain with patients struggling to see a GP in a timely manner and local dental surgeries are not accepting NHS patients as their books are already full."

A previous application for up to 80 homes on the site was rejected by South Staffordshire Council's planning committee in 2018.

But David Onions, who spoke in support of the application at Tuesday's meeting, said the land had been identified as a potential housing site since it was removed from the Green Belt in 1996.

He added: "Persimmon are ready to deliver and this must be given significant weight, given the council's current housing land supply position.

It includes 10% provision of older person's housing and 40% affordable housing – 10% more than the 30% requirement that will come into force when the new Local Plan is adopted."

Ward cllr Andrew Adams spoke against the application at Tuesday's meeting, raising concerns about noise levels at the site.

He said: "Another thing that has to be considered is the volume of traffic on the motorway – 121,000 vehicles each and every day, and 41m vehicles a year.

"I stand before you today to represent 300-plus residents of Cherrybrook Estate – not a single one of them considers this to be sound.

"Previous applications for this site have been declined for good reason."

Fellow ward cllr Sam Harper-Wallis proposed the application should be refused because of an unacceptable adverse affect on health and air quality.

He said: "In their own report you can see the noise levels are above 52 decibels at night and a mechanical cooling solution is going to be needed for properties on this site.

"That's going to affect the viability of how many houses that developer needs to build to make this site sustainable – it also will impact the amount of affordable house that they can build."

Cllr Christopher Steel said: "Are we saying that the residents of these houses, on a really hot night, cannot have their bedroom windows open?

"Surely that's human rights – we would at our house.

"I'm not confident in our environmental health people.

"If it was a BESS (battery energy storage system) site it wouldn't go ahead with those noise levels."

The committee was told that three properties on the site would require mitigation measures, but the levels on the rest of the site were deemed to be acceptable.

The environmental health position was that the development could be made acceptable through mitigation in gardens and properties – and residents could open their windows at night due to noise attenuation works and boundary treatment at the three homes where levels were higher.