‘Affordable’ estate on cards
ANEW estate where every home would be affordable could be built.
Housing association Great Places has submitted plans for 28 family homes on land off Belfield Mill Lane, in Belfield.
The ‘high quality’ three-and-four bedroom properties would be available for shared ownership - a part-buy, part-rent scheme for people who cannot afford a mortgage.
The aim is to give local people the chance to get onto the housing ladder and eventually increase their financial share of the home to 100 pc.
The two-acre site, which is bound by Ashfield House and open fields, would feature a mix of detached and semi-detached homes served by 56 parking spaces.
As part of the plans, there would be a new access road into the estate from Belfield Mill Lane and a pumping station would be installed to ensure adequate drainage.
A design and access statement accompanying the application sets out the benefits Great Places believe the development will bring to the area.
It explains: “Overall this is an excellent opportunity to deliver a high quality affordable residential scheme which will positively contribute to meeting an identified need for family housing in the borough.”
The document adds that the red-brick homes would all have ‘spacious plots’, ‘generous gardens’ and ‘sufficient parking spaces’ - ‘thus providing a variety of high quality house types’.
The open land site - is described as being in ‘a sustainable location, next to bus routes and within walking distance of the train station and the town centre, with a number of local amenities within the immediate surrounding area’.
The landscaping of the new streets also forms part of the association’s proposal.
This, alongside the existing trees and shrubbery, the documents state, ‘will further enrich the bio-diversity of the site’.
If the plan is given the go-ahead by planning chiefs, building work is expected to start in the winter of 2020 and be completed the following year.