COUNCILLORS will decide next month whether a holiday lodge can be built, after the decision was deferred.

Andrew Docchar had applied for permission to build a two-bedroom, single storey holiday let on land north of the Peth in Allendale.

Members of Tynedale Local Area Council were unable to make a decision and agreed to have a site visit. A decision is now due on September 10.

Council officers had recommended the application for refusal, but Allendale Parish Council’s chairman, Coun. David Crellin, spoke in defence of the lodge.

All but one member of the parish council had agreed to support the application in an earlier meeting.

Coun. Crellin said: “We want this as a parish council. He is an applicant who I want to support. He’s a local bloke who knows what’s what.

“I don’t see that it will have an impact on the conservation area – it’s beautiful. It will be the sort of building that we want in the village.

“The councillor who objected to this application objected to the sci-fi museum, the Dalek shed, and pretty much everything.”

The recommendation for refusal was based on a number of factors, including harm to the conservation area, lack of parking, and flood risk.

However, Coun. Colin Horncastle said: “If that site was to flood the whole of Britain would flood. You would park in the market place.”