Councillors have insisted on a site visit before deciding on whether to grant planning permission for stables, an all-weather riding arena and hardstanding on green belt land between Knowle and Chadwick End.

Planning officers had recommended granting permission ahead of this week's planning committee of Warwick District Council suggesting that the proposal was considered to be an appropriate form of development with the scale of the building appropriate.

But the meeting heard that there had been more than 100 letters of objection to the plans for the land north of Bakers Lane with Lapworth Parish Council also opposing the scheme.

John Gregory, a planning solicitor instructed by some of the local residents, said: "Ten years ago it was a well known local beauty spot being an open field with views across the canal towpath. For some time now residents have been concerned that it has been subject to piecemeal development which is eroding the openness of the countryside and causing irreparable harm to the green belt.

"Constant development using a series of small planning applications or death by a thousand cuts is just as harmful to openness as a one-off major scheme and as a matter of law you are perfectly entitled to refuse this application on the basis of its cumulative effect."

He added that those living in the nearest property had a clear view of the application site and the access was only as a farm track not as an access to an equestrian site.

Cllr Terry Morris (Con, Warwick Saltisford) asked why issues raised by the countryside charity CPRE were not addressed in the officers' report.

He said: "I suspect there are going to be a lot of questions that won't be sufficiently answered to allay the fears of committee members this evening. I would like to suggest that we defer this, do a site visit and maybe those concerns could be addressed before it comes back to committee."

And Cllr Judy Falp (Ind, Whitnash) added: "I have great concerns about the cumulative effect which we've been told we can take as a planning reason but, to be fair, I think we should see it."