One of the longest running planning sagas in Liverpool could be resolved next month.

All Saints, a Grade I-listed church in Childwall, has put in an application to build two detached, four-bedroom houses in the grounds of its vicarage garden.

An earlier application to build three homes on the site was thrown out by the city council last year.

One of the objectors was Lime Pictures, makers of popular teen soap Hollyoaks, who raised concerns about loss of privacy and noise as a result of the development causing disruption to filming schedules.

The parochial church council at All Saints wants to use profits from the sale of the land to help towards the costs of expanding its church hall, for which £1.6m is needed.

The development of homes has proved controversial in the past because the proposed site is in the Childwall Abbey conservation area and is also close to Liverpool’s only surviving medieval church.

But a report to the council’s planning committee said only one objection to the latest plan had been received from a neighbouring property, while 12 letters had been sent in support.

Lime Pictures has also withdrawn its objections to the scheme, after lengthy discussions with the applicant, while English Heritage said the harm to the conservation area was “very limited.”

Eight trees will need to be felled to make way for the development, but the report to the committee said they were of “limited merit”.

There is the potential to plant 20 trees on the site to compensate for the removal.

The report to the planning committee said: “A scheme of two houses on the site can be accommodated with limited harm to the conservation area… the proposed houses would be well designed and visually acceptable, and… any impact on the amenities of the adjacent property, although acknowledged, would not warrant a refusal of planning permission.

“The applicants have demonstrated that they have the support of their parishioners and that there would be some public benefit accrued from the development of the vicarage garden through 100% cross-funding of the church hall extension.”

The application is being recommended for approval when it comes before city planners on September 8.