A 180-home estate in the home village of famous Forest playwright Dennis Potter has been given the go ahead by a single vote.

Forest of Dean district councillors gave outline permission to developer Barratts to build the estate on the outskirts of Berry Hill by a majority of one.

The homes will be built on farmland next to Lower Lane on the A4136 and will significantly swell the 1,700 village popultaion.

And some councillors and members of the public were concerned about existing residents’ loss of privacy during last week’s council planning committee meeting (Tuesday, February 11).

One objector, Lloyd Priest, said: “Some semi-detached houses do not blend in with surroundings, directly overlooking residents’ gardens who will be looking into the new houses’ bedrooms.”

But a council officer said there wasn’t a ‘planning reason to alter a privacy standard’, adding: “I see from the photographs that the existing houses will be on higher land so in some ways those residents will be overlooking the proposed houses rather than the other way around to some degree.”

Ward councillor Carole Allaway Martin told the meeting: “While I recognise housing is essential for us to cope with an increase in population, the concerns of the community are profound.

“There is still a huge amount which needs to happen to reassure them.”

Gladman Developments Ltd sold the 26 acres of green land to Barratts last year after plans to build on the outskirts of Berry Hill had sparked a court battle.

In 2017, the then UK Communities Secretary Sajid Javid turned down the scheme, saying the homes would “blight” the countryside after a planning inspectorate had ruled that the estate should be built due to a district housing shortfall.

Gladman appealed to the High Court which overturned Mr Javid’s decision because it was “procedurally unfair” for not questioning the district council’s claim that the area did not need the extra homes.

There will be a range of 176 two-storey terraced, semi-detached and detached properties, and four single-storey homes with a garage or parking courts.

Coleford Town Council, West Dean Parish Council and the Berry Hill action group all objected to the scheme, alongside Natural England.

The village on the edge of the Wye Valley is where Pennies from Heaven and Singing Detective dramatist Potter was born in 1935.