Affordable housing loss sees application rejected

FRESH plans to build an extra 10 houses on a plot of land, already given permission for 36 houses, was rejected after councillors heard that 10 affordable houses would be lost in the process.

The application by Barwood Homes, for 46 homes off Cropston Road, Anstey, was rejected by Charnwood borough councillors at its planning meeting last week (April 5).

Permission to build 36 houses on the site of the old Brookside Nursery had already been granted, but initial work on clearing up the site would be more costly than first thought.

However the developer offered to gift a bungalow on the site to the council as social housing.

Charnwood’s planning department asks that at least 30 per cent of a new development in Anstey contains affordable housing.

Planning policy also states that if a developer feels that the provision of affordable housing would make the site financially unviable, then an independent report should be carried out.

In this case the District Valuer looked at the site and agreed with the developer saying that taking into account the cost of the whole development, the offer of the bungalow was the maximum the scheme could provide.

However councillors rejected the application by a vote of six to five, saying that young people of Charnwood were crying out for affordable housing.

Coun Mark Lowe proposed that the scheme should be rejected, saying he thought it was wrong to lose the original affordable homes.