The final decision over a controversial plan to build a dozen new 'eco lodges' at a popular beauty spot has been put on hold to allow for a site visit.

Proposals to build the holiday chalets beside the Compensation Reservoir at Cornalees Farm near Dunrod Road were knocked back by Inverclyde Council's planning committee in April.

But Mr Caskie appealed to Local Review Body which sat this week councillors have postponed a decision until they go out to visit the site.

Speaking at the meeting, Councillor Stephen McCabe said: "This is obviously a significant application in a very sensitive area.

"I am of the view that there is certainly a need, demand for this kind of accommodation but is it the right location for that type of development?

"I would benefit from a site visit to get an understanding of the visual impact of the development on the natural environment."

Councillor Jim Clocherty backed the idea saying he didn't have a problem with a site visit.

While Councillor Natasha McGuire also supported the idea, saying, a 'site visit would be helpful', adding 'we are trying to protect the green belt'.

Councillor Innes Nelson said it was a balance between the development, encouraging tourism and creating construction, and long term jobs and the countryside but added other councils had done this.

According to the plans, the single-storey lodges would have two to three bedrooms, a kitchen/lounge dining space, shower room and hall with external decking and will be finished in stone and timber cladding on external walls with sloping grass roofs.

Each chalet would have two parking bays for guests and a decking area.

The application also seeks permission for a 'small, ancillary building of similar design' for administration and servicing of the lodges, as well as for an access road.

Plans had been turned down initially because officials said the development failed to meet the requirements of 'distinctiveness' in the council's local development plans because it did not respect the landscape setting or character and did not protect important views.

They also said the application did not provide any justification for 'the essential requirement for a green belt location'.

Two representations were received from the public, one neutral, and one objection.

The objector said the proposal was 'located in the middle of the Muirshiel Park and would turn one of the last natural areas into a party village', and said the area, close to the Compensation Reservoir, was 'a breeding and hunting ground for rare wildlife and birds'.

Appeal documents produced by Mr Caskie’s agent, Greenock-based Nicholson McShane Architects, have pushed back against the suggestions made by officers.

They state: “We refute the opinion that the proposal fails to respect the landscape character and setting, and that it fails to protect important views.

“The applicant evidenced our approach to these matters in a specialist report from a highly regarded firm of landscape consultants who analysed these aspects in detail.

“Yet the officers have reached a contrary opinion whilst preferring no evidence as to how their opinions were influenced.”

Nicolson McShane also claim officers have made a 'major error' by stating that the site is within green belt land, and is instead in ‘designated countryside’.

They add: "We believe that the chosen site is ideal for a sympathetic development of the type proposed, lying as it does in a small area characterised not by remoteness but by historic and modern infrastructure, tourist development and centuries of industrial endeavour.

"How can a development of lodges specifically located to give immediate access to the countryside be anywhere other than in the countryside?"