A planning row over up to nine new homes in Great Salkeld is heading behind closed doors, with councillors due to receive legal advice on the application and a live appeal.
The press and public will be excluded while councillors are briefed on the situation surrounding the proposed development at land west of Fold Gardens.
It comes as the planning dispute has taken a new turn, with the developer now pursuing a fresh application with Westmorland and Furness Council while also appealing to the Government Planning Inspectorate after the council failed to determine the original application.
The original application, for permission in principle for between one and nine homes, was considered by the Eden Area Planning Committee in June.
Council planning officers had recommended that it should be approved.
But councillors were not convinced and instead deferred the application, with concerns raised about the fact that the site lies within the Great Salkeld Conservation Area.
At the meeting, the committee was told that the council's housing land supply position meant the application had to be considered against national planning policy, with the so-called "tilted balance" applying.
The committee unanimously agreed to defer the application.
However, the council's legal adviser warned councillors that the applicant could appeal to the Planning Inspectorate if a decision was not made within the required period.
The planning officers warning to councillors is now exactly what has happened with the applicant appealed against non-determination on made to the government planning inspector on the 20th August.
Just a day later, a fresh planning application was submitted for the same site by the applicants agent who said the new application was being made "without prejudice" to the existing appeal.
The new application is again for permission in principle for up to nine homes, with the same site and the same red line boundary.
The developer's planning agent, Addis Town Planning, says the council already has much of the consultation and planning information from the earlier application.
It also argues that little has changed apart from the publication of a revised National Planning Policy Framework on 17 th August.
The developer maintains that the new national planning policy strengthens its case for housing on the site.
But the applicant accepts that the site does not qualify as either "infill" or "rounding off" under the council's local planning policies, and that the first criterion of the relevant housing policy cannot be met.
Instead, the applicant argues that the shortage of housing land means those local policy restrictions should carry limited weight in the council’s decision making of the application.
The council's housing land supply figure cited in the application is 3.17 years, well below the five years normally required by a local planning authority.
Councillors will receive the briefing on the application in private with press and public excluded at the end of the Eden area planning committee meeting taking place at Voreda House on Wednesday (9th August) at 10am.
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