Plans to build dozens of homes on narrow country lane have been refused planning permission by councillors at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Property development company Staxlink wanted permission to build 32 homes on Kimbers Lane just south of Maidenhead. But neighbours said the development would be too large for a road popular with walkers and cyclists.

Roger Williams told councillors he had lived on Kimbers Lane for 40 years when he appealed to them to reject the plans at a meeting on Thursday, July 18.

He said: “I think it’s completely wrong that anything should change in the way that it is on Kimbers Lane because it is a narrow greenway.”

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He said construction traffic for several larger sites already approved for development would be using the lane.

Council planning officers also recommended that councillors vote to refuse the Staxlink plan on the grounds that it wouldn’t preserve a ‘green link’ for walkers and cyclists among the new developments.

But Staxlink’s representative Joseph Baum argued that it would be inconsistent to refuse permission for the smaller development when other larger ones had been approved nearby. He pointed out that the area had been earmarked by the council for development.

He said: “You may ask why this application – which will deliver on an allocated site – is being recommended to you for refusal. We would simply respond with one word – inconsistency.”

Seven councillors on the council’s Maidenhead development management committee voted to refuse the plans, with one against refusal and one abstaining.