500 new homes planned for edge of town
PUBLIC CONSULTATION HAS BEEN LAUNCHED FOR THE HUGE DEVELOPMENT ON 49 ACRES OF GREEN FIELDS TO THE NORTH OF BURTON
FIVE-HUNDRED homes look set to be built on 49 acres of fields on the edge of Burton, new plans have revealed.
A public consultation has been launched by Homes England for the development of the northern edge of Burton.
It comes six years after a similar application was approved - but the plans are now being re-thought after criticism of the original proposals.
Plans for a total of 500 houses including the first phase of 110 - on land at Glenville Farm, in Tutbury Road, Burton, were first approved by East Staffordshire Borough Council back in October 2015.
Fine detail was ironed out when a “reserved matters” application was approved in 2018, but no work has started.
The application submitted by Staffordshire County Council was met with criticism and received letters of objection, claiming the homes would “ruin the character of the area”.
Now Government agency Homes England has made some tweaks to the previous plans - and intends to submit a new application in the summer, before finding suitable developers to start building.
The tweaks include a reconfigured layout including greater retention of hedges; the relocation of the “local centre”, featuring shops, to be more central to the wider community; the addition of a third site access from Harehedge Lane; joining the local centre with a community car park; and new pedestrian access to St Modwen’s Primary School.
If approved, a third of the homes will be classed as “affordable”, with specialist accommodation for the elderly also set to be included.
In its public consultation report, Homes England said: “The vision [is] a new residential-led mixed use neighbourhood for Burton, linking communities through an attractive, connected and biodiverse landscape. A new retail-led local centre will provide a hub and focus for activity, supporting the clustering of activity and the opportunity for interaction.”
The site is allocated in the adopted East Staffordshire Local Plan, which sets out a blueprint for where houses should be built in the borough.
If the new application is approved, it is hoped construction will begin in spring 2023.
A third of the homes will be classed as “affordable”, with specialist accommodation for the elderly also set to be included.