Councillors have refused plans for a £5m luxury holiday park in the Scottish Borders.

Developers said their 40-lodge plan at Earlshaugh Farm in Jedburgh would create 18 jobs and include an office, reception and manager's accommodation lodge.

CampbellMac Developments, based in Little Sodbury, Gloucestershire, applied to Scottish Borders Council (SBC) to change the use of the agricultural grazing land.

But the local authority refused the application amid concerns about the environmental impact, noise pollution and road safety.

The planning application received 13 objections and a petition against the plans was also submitted to the council.

At a meeting of SBC's planning and building standards committee, Tweedale East councillor Marshall Douglas said it was the wrong location for such a development.

"My concerns really revolve around the access and the safe travel routes that don't appear to be available on that position on the A68, which is an extremely fast road," he added.

"To expect people to walk along the edge of that road or cycle along it is not really on at all. That is the main problem."

He said: "The Borders needs holiday developments and needs investment that we are talking about but this is the wrong place given the state of the road and the lack of potential transport other than cars."

A planning statement for the developers said the lodges proposed would be at the "top end" in terms of design and specification.

It argued the plans would sit well with the "clear ambition to grow the visitor economy in the Scottish Borders".

However a report to members of the committee by planning officials described the development as "out of character" with the site and surrounding area.