A final decision is due next week on a controversial planning application to build eco-lodges at Cornalees.

Euan Caskie wants to erect holiday chalets beside the Compensation Reservoir at Cornalees Farm near Dunrod Road.

This was rejected by Inverclyde's Planning Committee in April but went in front of the Local Review Body in October.

(Image: Council papers) The final decision was postponed as councillors voted to go and visit the site.

Councillor Natasha McGuire said 'a site visit would be helpful', adding 'we are trying to protect the green belt'.

While 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.

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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.

According to the proposals, 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 final decision will be made by the Local Review Body on Wednesday, December 4.

Two representations have been 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, said: "We refute the opinion that the proposal fails to respect the landscape character and setting, and that it fails to protect important views."

Nicolson McShane also claim officers have made a 'major error' by stating that the site is within green belt land and say it instead on ‘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."