OFFICERS are recommending approval of plans for more homes on a landmark Cockermouth site.

Mr and Mrs Bob Slack, of The Fitz, a listed Georgian mansion, already have approval for 16 homes in their grounds off Low Road.

A second application submitted to Allerdale Council for 11 more will go before the Development Panel next Tuesday.

Officers are recommending approval, subject to conditions. "The benefits of the development outweigh the impacts which are neither significant nor demonstrable," they state.

Cockermouth Town Council and the town's civic trust have recommended refusal. The town council said it constituted overdevelopment, oversupply and was detrimental to the setting of a listed building.

The civic trust said: "The proposed application to increase and amend an extant outline approval for 17 dwellings to 27 constitutes considerable overdevelopment.

"This proposal seeks to add 10 more dwellings, increase the site area by approximately 100%, and create a new access on to Low Road.

"Whilst the last approved application was unacceptable use of open parkland, it was sufficiently distant from the Fitz manor and only occupied a small portion of existing parkland. This application, however, seeks to double the area of development requiring a significant portion of the existing parkland to be developed.

"The addition of 10 houses in relative terms will have little impact on the wider settlement but the increased use of existing parkland that surrounds the Fitz Manor and provides an open green landscape on the edge of the main settlement area of Cockermouth will have measurable and significant impact on the listed asset and the approach in to town."

Councillors will make a site visit before making a decision.