COUNCILLORS have stuck to their guns and again thrown out part of Red Funnel's East Cowes terminal plan.

The planning committee tonight (Tuesday) reaffirmed its earlier decision to refuse a lorry trailer park but to allow more car parking.


Councillors were told to re-examine their earlier decision by chief planning officer Wendy Perera.

She warned the grounds for refusal were unsustainable at appeal and that the council could face a costs bill of more than £100,000.

Half of Red Funnel’s application to expand its East Cowes marshalling yard was a month ago thrown out by the planning committee which also refused 80 homes on fields at Ryde’s Westridge Farm.

They were told to look again at that tonight too.

The decisions to vote against officer recommendations came less than a year after the council lost a planning appeal over the Blanchards development at Brighstone when councillors sided with objectors not their own officers.

The Blanchards decision cost the authority tens of thousands in legal costs.

Officers had warned there were no sustainable grounds within the planning blueprint, the Island Plan, to refuse Red Funnel permission.

But councillors turned down the lorry trailer park part of the scheme because of loss of important marine industrial space through demolition of the Redux shed behind Dover Road.

Councillors deferred a decision on an equally controversial application for 80 homes at Westridge Farm in Ryde.

They originally turned it down on access road and highways grounds — despite Island Roads telling them roads would adequately serve the new development.

Both applications had attracted significant objections from the public and councillors said they had a duty to take that into account.

Tonight (Tuesday) they agreed to seek more information about how the viability of the dairy farm would be affected by a major homes development on part of it.

Deferral was welcomed by objectors who said the council had a duty to consider accurate information before making a decision.