Fifteen new houses, a hot tub and sauna for holiday let are to be built at a disused limestone quarry on the outskirts of Kendal.

London-based architects PARTI submitted the application for Sizergh Fell Quarry, off a minor road between Levens and Sizergh.

The development will contain seven two-bed houses, five three-bed houses, and three flats.

The plans involve an internal walled courtyard garden, two roadside buildings, a 30-space car park and units backing onto the former quarry face.

Levens Parish Council owns the site, but it falls within the Lake District National Park after the 2016 boundary extension.

Lake District National Park Authority planners have agreed that David McGowan, head of development management, can approve the project subject to a legal agreement and 11 conditions.

In 2016, South Lakeland District Council granted planning permission for eight open market dwellings at the site as part of the Levens Masterplan.

Area planner Catherine Campbell said the new proposals would represent a large development in open countryside.

She said: “However, the principle of the use of the site for housing has been established by the planning permission granted by SLDC as part of the wider Levens Masterplan to deliver a new village hall.

"I am satisfied the development would not result in harm to the character or appearance of the area.”

Panel member Geoff Davies said there were no affordable houses in the scheme.

He said: “There seems to be some assumption that what this is, in fact, is a holiday development rather than residential. They are unfettered houses, and presumably, they could be used as holiday homes.”

Mr Davies was told he was correct. Martin Curry, clerk to Levens Parish Council, said it was in strong support because the quarry had no useful purpose.

He said the parish council was contractually obliged to deliver seven affordable houses, and a new village hall, but could only do so with the sale of the site and the quarry development.

Mr Curry said Levens had concerns about the lack of affordable homes in the parish and recognised the need for a new purpose-built village hall.

“These are priorities in the parish plan and the parish council has conceived to create a scheme based on a number of redundant quarry sites it owns. 

"We believe it will bring a welcome churn of visitors.”

Parti director Tom Leahy told the meeting the designs were sustainable, architecturally honest and economically important.

They would beautify an unloved brownfield site, creating 20-30 jobs during construction, he said. “This will be a flagship of sustainable design in the Lake District National Park,” said Mr Curry.

Panel member Miles MacInnes urged the committee to back the plans and said they would help achieve affordable housing and a village hall, so therefore “ticked a box”.

The committee voted five to two in favour of the plans.