AN appeal has been launched over the refusal of plans to create 15 new homes in a Wrexham village after councillors were accused of providing “misleading information”.

Proposals by Primesave Properties to build on greenfield land to the back of Brookfield Close in Penley were rejected in January.

It followed concerns being raised about the level of development in the village near the Shropshire border, where more than 100 houses have been built recently.

Residents also expressed their belief that local facilities would not be able to cope.

The company has now lodged an appeal after questioning the fairness of the decision by Wrexham Council’s planning committee.

In a statement outlining the grounds for appeal, consultants from David Parker Planning Associates said: “The appellant is very unhappy with the way in which certain comments were made by councillors on the application, and that the proposals therefore did not receive a ‘fair’ hearing at the meeting.

“Whilst the appellant understands and respects the councillors’ rights to comment on the application, it does appear that there were concerted efforts by at least two councillors to unfairly discredit the application.

“At the beginning of the debate, one councillor refers to the village having ‘only three buses a day, when it has a total of eight.

“The same councillor lists the services and facilities in the village, but then concludes by saying that the village ‘has no services at all.’”

They also voiced frustration over councillors referring to the availability of alternative brownfield sites in the village, including land surrounding the former Penley Polish Hospital.

It follows the company claiming it would take a long time for the area to be developed because of objections from campaigners who are looking to preserve it.

They added: “It is both surprising and disappointing that the two most vocal councillors (who were from the local wards of Bronington and Overton) appeared completely unaware of the local community’s interest in the southern Polish Hospital site, and unaware that planning permission had been refused on part of the northern site.

“The appellant is therefore most unsatisfied with the manner in which information was presented to the decision-making committee, and believe that this is sufficient to warrant an application for costs to accompany this appeal.”

The scheme, which the developers said would cater for people looking to buy their first home, initially received the backing of the council’s chief planning officer.

However, local councillor John McCusker told January’s meeting he supported the view that the village had already been extensively developed.

He said: “Penley has been so over built over the years you would not believe it.

“I have never seen so many objections from the community council since I’ve been on the planning committee.

“Besides that, they’ve had 35 houses passed in the not too distant future and a lot of those haven’t even had a brick laid yet.

“If you look at the area here, it’s outside the permitted boundary.

“People have got to stop playing on the fact we’ve got no Local Development Plan. This is green belt land – end of.”

The committee backed a motion to refuse the plans by 14 votes to two because of the site being located outside of the current development boundary for Penley.

The appeal will be decided by the Planning Inspectorate at a later date.