A developer who faces losing millions in a planning row with Canterbury City Council which ended in defeat in the highest court in the land has suffered another setback.

Graham Oates battled with the authority for more than two years after converting former hen barns on a farmstead near Canterbury into six luxury homes without permission.

The council argued the units at Hoath Farm in Bekesbourne Lane were effectively new buildings, not conversions, and he was refused retrospective planning permission.

That view was subsequently upheld by a planning inspector and then finally in the Supreme Court and he was ordered to demolish them by July 12.

At last week’s planning committee, Mr Oates applied for permission to replace them with two new barn-style houses.

Numerous residents already living in surrounding former farm buildings on the site backed his plans.

But planning officers recommended refusal, saying they would result in "inappropriate and unnecessary residential encroachment in the countryside".

And committee members agreed, unanimously voting against the application.

Afterwards, Mr Oates said he was unlikely to appeal the latest decision, adding: “This development was really for the residents to create a better environment for them.

“I'm still at a loss as to what the council expects this site will become because it is just hardstanding, not open fields or orchards. It just seems illogical to me.”