The proposals for a warehouse, office and workshop on land off Brailwood Close in the village first came before Newark & Sherwood District Council Planning Committee in November last year.

The application, which is within an established industrial area, was deferred so applicants W A Rainbow & Son Ltd could address the problem with Natural England.

Great crested newts are protected by law and it is an offence to kill or injure them or to damage or destroy their habitat.

Since the initial application, Rainbow has agreed to provide a landscaping strip that will represent a habitat creation zone for the newts, including two new ponds.

Councillors were satisfied with the proposals to safeguard the newts and planning officers recommended the application be approved, though Bilsthorpe Parish Council raised objections to the plans.

Council chairman Robert Bradbury told the meeting last Tuesday the additional traffic would make an already dangerous road even more so.
He said: "It will not bring any benefit to Bilsthorpe whatsoever. The only thing it will be is detrimental."

It is expected that 95 people at the firm's current Southwell site will transfer to Bilsthorpe, but five new jobs will also be created within the first two years of the move.

•Plans for a non-static tourist caravan site in Rufford have been refused as the proposal does not lie within a main settlement and represents an 'unsustainable location for new development'.

The applicants have already had plans for a bed and breakfast guest house and separate plans for six log cabin holiday homes refused on the Old Rufford Road site.

Coun Susan Saddington said the plans would provide vital tourist accommodation for the area and she couldn't understand why previous applications had been turned down.

She said: "There is very little tourist accommodation in that area. Short of putting themselves in the Major Oak, I'm not sure where they would sleep."

But councillors were told the application did not meet the requirements of the local area plan and should be refused on that basis.