A CRUNCH bid to build 165 flats for Hartpury University students has been delayed after an objector compared the grassland scheme to a Premier Inn hotel being “catapulted into a green field”.

The university, which specialises in education in animal nursing and sport, wants to build three three-storey accommodation blocks and a 95-space car park to cope with an increase in student numbers.

But Forest of Dean District Council’s planning committee unanimously voted to defer application last week (Tuesday, February 11) amid concerns over the development’s design and its impact on the landscape.

One member of the public told the meeting the blocks ‘look as if a Premier Inn has been catapulted into a green field’.