PLANS for 42 houses on land South of Barnton Hey Drive, Caldy, have just gone before Wirral's planning sub-committee with a recommendation to approve.

The applicant is Alfred McAlpine, who had a previous application last year but then had talks with the Caldy Society before putting in revised plans.

An alternative brick and concrete roof tile is now proposed and there is provision for an area of public open space.

Secretary of Caldy Society, Mrs G Humphrey, has told Wirral Council in a letter that they had a meeting with McAlpine and they agreed to plant buffer landscaping at the boundary of the development.

When Wirral Council's ruling Labour group moved last year to strip the Gleneagles area of Caldy of its conservation status, residents complained. The then Tory spokesman for planning, Coun Sid Dunn, warned that 'developers will be in like vultures'.

The council's planning department says that while the latest application does not comply with the special guidelines for Gleneagles Park, it should result in a comprehensive, well-landscaped development, which could justify a departure from policy.

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