FINAL say on an application to build eight retirement cottages at Landford will rest with deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's department.

Salisbury planners have recommended refusal of the scheme, at the Cedar Nursing Home, but the application is already in Mr Prescott's department following an earlier failure by Salisbury councillors to determine the project.

It is the intention of the applicant to restrict the proposed homes to people aged 55 and over.

Twelve parking spaces for residents and seven for visitors are planned.

"The proposal is a major residential development in the countryside designated as a special landscape area and lies within the New Forest Heritage Area," said Salisbury district planner, Tim Slaney.

Planners received a number of objections to the scheme from residents claiming the development was inappropriate and overdevelopment of the countryside.

They also raised concerns about possible increases in traffic movements.

But Landford Parish Council is happy with the proposals, which are based around the Victorian villa used as Cedars Nursing Home..

And the Highways Agency, which is responsible for the A36 trunk road through the village, said the development would only generate a "small amount" of traffic. Like the parish council, the agency raised no objections.

However, Wiltshire County Council planning bosses are less enthusiastic about the scheme.

They concluded the application conflicted with two policies in the draft Wiltshire Structure Plan 2011 and some of the council's existing housing policies.

Councillors rejected the proposals last week on the grounds that the scheme represented a significant degree of residential development in the rural locality within the countryside.