A DEVELOPER has vowed to pursue highly-contested plans to build hundreds of homes in a village after being refused planning permission.

London Regeneration Ltd will battle a dismissal of its application for 354 homes in Sutton Courtenay, taking its case to a higher power.

It is plotting an appeal to the planning inspectorate after Vale of White Horse District Council forbade the plans.

The council's decision was published on Friday and said the development off Harwell Road, which would include a medical centre and community facilities, would 'represent a disproportionate addition to the village' and 'cause coalescence between Sutton Courtenay and Didcot'.

Among seven bullet-pointed arguments, council officers echoed villagers' concerns about flooding and the site's potentially harmful proximity to landfill.

The developer's director Roger Freedman said he had long-anticipated rejection at local authority level and blamed 'local politics', referencing widespread opposition from residents.

He said: "We expected this. We have waited and waited for this refusal. We always knew this would be the turnout at local authority level. We expect the planning inspectorate to look at this on planning grounds rather than political grounds.

"We know that development is unpopular in Sutton Courtenay for various reasons, and I don't disagree. I can understand that, if you've lived in a small town or village for 30 years and it's expanding out of recognition. But people need houses. It keeps families together; until quite recently people have had to move miles away."

He said he had taken developments to the inspectorate 'many times' and 'nearly every time' had succeeded, and was confident his team could dispel concerns about drainage and landfill.

Sutton Courtenay resident Callum MacKenzie said villagers would continue to fight against the development if it went to appeal, and stressed the need for housing to fall in line with the village's forthcoming neighbourhood plan.

He said he was relieved the council had refused the development, adding: "Local residents are entitled to expect that any development in the village, if it is to happen, is in line with a neighbourhood plan we are all happy with, once all alternative sites have been properly considered."

Residents are also fighting against Redrow's 200-home proposal for land off Hobbyhorse Lane, for which a decision is due to be made by March 2.

Sandy Lovatt, chairman of the district council's planning committee, insisted the decision was not made on political grounds.

He said: "Nothing is ever decided on political grounds, every property owner has a right to do what they would like provided it does not harm the area."

An appeal is due to be submitted within the next couple of months.