Plans for 12 holiday lodges at Y Ffor, near Pwllheli have been rejected.

The plan to change the use of agricultural land to develop 12 permanent holiday cabins, with associated parking, alterations to access, drainage and landscaping, came before planning on 29 September.

The application by D P Jones, Penrhyndeudraeth, through agent Jonathan Moore Lambe, of Lambe Planning & Design Ltd, was a diversification project by a Welsh farming family residing at a farm at Llanfrothen, Penrhyndeudraeth.

This had been prompted, it stated, due to the “historic long term decline in agricultural income and a clear need to diversify” and aimed to provide “high quality” tourist accommodation.

Planning officers recommended refusal for reasons including the number of units, setting, design, appearance in the landscape, scale, lack of information over drainage, lack of Welsh language consideration, and insufficient information including a geophysical survey.

Mr Lambe said a landscape visual impact assessment concluded “the development would have no material intrusion into the distinctive patterns of lowland farmland or cultural character of the area”.

Geophysical and percolation tests “established nothing that looked prehistoric, settlement, industrial or funery related” he said.

But “of significant relevance” to the proposal, he said, was that “another scheme for 35 units by a local resident was approved last November at Pwllheli”.

A raft of objections had come in from the public and local community council including over-development, worries over the busy road, an “increase of noise, traffic and activity on the site and the A499 Junction being considered “dangerous” and impact on existing holiday sites, and setting a precedent for similar developments.

It was also felt the scheme could “disrupt” local amenities, landscape and economy and there worries about surface water.

Abererch Cllr Richard Glyn Roberts said he wanted to emphasise the “large number” of objections from local residents, and that community council was against it “unanimously”.