Hundreds of homes have been approved as part of a major expansion of Grantham.

The planning Committee of South Kesteven District Council backed the schemes from Jelson Ltd and Linden Homes on a site known as Rectory Farm.

Jelson had sought to build 220 homes and Linden 228 homes.

As Nub News reported last week, the builds are part of the Grantham North West Quadrant sustainable urban extension.

The quadrant also includes the nearby partially-completed 1,800-home Poplar Farm development where community facilities including a school, community centre, sports ground and neighbourhood centre have been or are due to be completed.

The land has been allocated for residential development in the council's local plan since 2010. The council has been working with the developers on these schemes for four years and the homes promise to be of a high standard of design.

The planning committee meeting today heard both applications together, though members later voted overwhelmingly for them in separate votes.

The meeting heard an objection from local resident Keith Hargreaves, who told the meeting the scheme would generate much traffic from the residents of the applications, especially around the ASDA roundabout.

However, the meeting heard that if approved, the developers would have to pay £1.7M on local roads to help alleviate congestion. This included traffic lights on the turn off from the A52 Barrowby Road to the A1.

Council planning staff also told the meeting that if the Grantham Southern Relief Road was not planned the development would not be acceptable as it would put too much pressure on traffic going into Grantham town centre.

The homes in the two scheme would not be allowed to be occupied until the traffic lights were erected.

A council planner also said Lincolnshire County Council was working on "Barrowby Road Greening", which would change the character of the A52 when the Southern Relief Road was open.

"It would be much more of a residential low traffic road," he said.

Instead of articulated lorries going along Barrowby Road and through the town centre, instead more priority would be given to pedestrians and cyclists.

However, there was no definite timeframe for the changes.

Former Grantham mayor Iain Selby said he welcomed the planned cycleway but this and other schemes emphasised a need to restore A&E and other services at Grantham Hospital.