DEVELOPERS are hoping to win approval for revised designs to a housing project in a Suffolk village.

Permission was granted in 2011 for Hopkins Homes to build five new homes in Walberswick, but a planning committee will next week be asked to green-light an alternative design and layout.

A report by planning officers recommends approval, despite suggesting the updated designs are “not as sympathetic to the area as the approved scheme”.

Hopkins said it believed the designs complemented the local area were enhanced compared to the “repetitive nature” of the previous plan.

The proposal, for four large houses and a smaller affordable home to the side and rear of Rosemary Cottage and the former Waveney Lodge in The Street, attracted 93 objections when originally submitted.

So far, 29 letters of objection have been received for the revised scheme – many of which, officers say, are identical to those raised previously and need not be considered unless concerned with the revised design and layout and any potential impact on adjoining properties.

The report also states that the current proposal loses much of the “arts and crafts style” of the original design, replacing it with a large executive appearance.

Conflictingly, one of the homes (plot four) had been amended due to initial concerns about its neo-Georgian design, which was particularly out of keeping with the area, but is still of concern and should, according to planning officers, be simplified.

Meanwhile, the affordable home has been moved to increase the distance between properties.

The report concludes that although the revised designs are not as sympathetic as the approved scheme, they are considered acceptable, subject to further minor design amendments to plot four.

A spokeswoman for Hopkins Homes said: “The designs have been enhanced and now include distinctive elevations, varying rooflines and decorative detailing compared to the repetitive nature of the previous approval, thus creating an extremely attractive development that, we believe complements the local area.”