Dorset Council has again deferred taking enforcement action over the rebuild of a former farmhouse in Bothenhampton.

An appeal against the council's refusal of retrospective planning consent is expected to be lodged in the coming week.

Officers had asked for approval to take formal action after sections of the re-built Homestead Farm were found not to have complied with the original building consent.

Council powers can stretch to forcing the demolition of a building, although this is extremely rare and not likely in this case.

The owners have stopped work on the project and are appealing against a unanimous area planning committee decision not to agree the changes as they now exist.

Both sides are now waiting for an appeal to be held with agents for the owners saying that they anticipate lodging the appeal in the week beginning December 14.

Dorset Council's area planning committee unanimously rejected amended plans for the building, reported to have cost £4million, in August.

Village residents had taken on their own experts after becoming concerns that sections of it were being built higher than the original planning consent and some parts of it out of line, compared to the original consent.

They claim that the result is an over-dominant home which has partially blocked views of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and looks out of place in the Bothenhampton conservation area.

Planning officers said back in the summer that the changes were not significant enough to do anything other than approve the house as it now stands – but councillors disagreed and unanimously rejected the retrospective planning application which would have given consent to the house as it is.

In October the committee decided to hold any enforcement action in abeyance provided an appeal was lodged by mid-November. At their meeting this week they again deferred taking any action with a proposal to look again at the situation in January.

Agent for the applicants argued that taking any action before an appeal was concluded would be premature. The committee heard that the mid-November date had slipped because of the complexity of the issues and difficulty in contacting all the necessary experts.

Consent for the new home, on the corner of Main and Duck Street, to replace a former farmhouse, was originally granted in April 2018.