OBJECTORS say they are pleased the controversial Baxter's Field housing estate plan looks set to be turned down.
Resident Mary Jarrett from Slad Valley Action Group said the campaigners had been in no doubt all along that Stroud District Council planning officers and members supported their fight.
The council's development control committee is being recommended by officers to reject the scheme for 140 homes on the field near Summer Street when they meet next Wednesday.
"Obviously, we're pleased with the refusal recommendation," said Mrs Jarrett.
"We need to thank all our supporters."
Mrs Jarrett said would still have her fingers crossed when the application from Gladman Develop-ments went before the committee.
But, with in excess of 1,500 letters of objection sent to the council by the public and objections from parish and town councils and heavyweights like Natural England, English Heritage, the Cotswold Conservation Board and the Campaign to Protest Rural England, the campaigners were quietly confident they had won the first round of their battle.
"I think it has broken records with the number of objections to a residential development," Mrs said Jarrett.
It will remain to be seen whether Gladman will press on to an appeal if the council turns down the application.
Among their reasons for reasons refusal, planning officers say Baxter's Field contributes to the open, rural setting of 'heritage assets', particularly when viewed from Swift's Hill.
They say the site is part of an incised valley landscape which is both a continuation of and indivisible from the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Martyn Twigg, Gladman's project director for the scheme, said: "We are disappointed by the officer's recommendation as we believe we have submitted a comprehensive proposal which provides many benefits.
"We will await the outcome of the committee."
Gladman has stated that the estate would secure substantial economic benefits in a sustainable location and create a country park
