DORSET Council is facing a planning appeal after not making a decision on a Portland application for six homes.

The proposal was verified by the authority in January 2022 and under Government planning guidelines a decision should have been made within eight weeks.

The site is south east of the Southwell Business Park at Sweet Hill Road, the side of the road which has little development and is mainly used for grazing.

The appeal, for non-determination, has been launched by developers Laming and Sons Ltd, based in Grove Road, Portland.

During the consultation process Dorset Ramblers had questioned the suggestion that a public footpath would to be re-routed to make way for the eight homes and Dorset Wildlife Trust had said it needed more information in an ecological assessment of the site before coming to a conclusion about whether or not the proposal for the homes, laid out in a linear way, could be acceptable.

Portland’s three ward councillors had all asked that the application go before councillors at an area planning committee rather than be decided by planning officers using their delegated powers.

The developers say neither course of action has been taken.

Public comments on the application proposals closed two years ago, on February 17, 2022.