A TEAM of Government appointed experts has backed Stroud District Council's plans to build 1,750 homes at the Hunt's Grove site in Hardwicke.

In a surprise move, they also recommended that the council investigates whether a further 1,500 properties could be developed at a second site in the nearby Brookthorpe-with-Whaddon parish, which also lies mainly in the Stroud district boundary.

The experts' report, revealed at a press conference at Ebley Mill this afternoon, will be incorporated into the existing Regional Spacial Strategy for the South West, which in part acts as a masterplan for all future housing developments from Tewkesbury to Penzance.

Leader of Stroud District Council Chas Fellows was delighted with the report's findings.

The announcement will however disappoint many nearby residents of the 104-acre Hunt's Grove site as well as MPs for Stroud and Gloucester, David Drew and Parmjit Dhanda, who last year urged housing minister Yvette Cooper to review the application.

Both MPs said Stroud District Council (SDC) was dumping it's housing problem on the outskirts of Gloucester.

The subsequent inquiry is set to take place in just over a week's time.

Pete Gilbert, SDC's planning strategy manager, said the timely report would back up the council's case at the inquiry.

"They have accepted that there is a need for this development," he said, adding that a second site near Tuffley should be investigated.

"Not only have they said Hunt's Grove is appropriate but they have said we need about another 1,500 homes nearby."

The experts' recommendations, logged in a 566-page report, include slightly increased housing targets for the council, which must build 9,100 homes over the next 20 years.

Of these, 3,500 are expected in urban extensions south of Gloucester, leaving 5,600 to be found in the rest of the district.

However, If current committments and identified sites are realised, the council will effectively only have to find space for 2,278 new homes - equating to around 114 per year.

The recommendations also state that previously developed land in and around Stroud should be primarily replaced by employment not housing in order to increase self-containment and sustainability.

"The focus is really about trying to maintain villages and services which isn't really led by housing," said Mr GIlbert.

On Tuesday, Crest Nicholson - the developer behind plans to build the Hunt's Grove homes - told SDC's planning development control committee that it had created a blueprint for one of the country's most sustainable housing sites.