At breaking point – housing plan fears
Scheme includes 215 homes, a shop and commercial units
PLANS to build more than 200 homes on fields in Bishop’s Cleeve will be considered next week.
Gladman Homes wants to construct 215 houses, a shop and other commercial units on land off Stoke Road.
The plot is next to the Malvern View Business Park and opposite Grundon Waste Management Ltd’s base.
Councillors on Tewkesbury Borough Council’s planning committee are being recommended by officers to refuse the development at a meeting next week.
Residents have expressed fears over new developments in the village, with concerns about traffic, flooding, pollution and insufficient infrastructure.
The development – a mix of two to five-bedroom properties – would take up more than six hectares.
The proposals also include 300 square metres for a food store and more than two hectares for employment land, which would be an extension of the business park.
The homes would mostly be two storeys, while the business units would be two and three storeys high.
Residential parking would be provided by bays, driveways and garages.
Around five hectares would be allocated for green space and a basin would be built to prevent flooding, with surface water run-off channeled to Glebe Farm Brook.
Several major developments are being built in the area, including 127 homes off Gotherington Lane and 550 off the A435 at Cleevelands.
Objecting to the new development,
one resident said in a letter to the borough council: “Bishop’s Cleeve has been saturated with thousands of houses over the last 15 years and I believe that the objections outlined by Bishop’s Cleeve Parish Council in May 2018 to this further development eloquently explain why another development is totally wrong for this area.
“On a personal note I must add that it feels quite suffocating living here now with all this extra housing and the issues that they bring – it’s making Bishop’s Cleeve a much less happier place to live.”
Another resident said Bishop’s Cleeve was at “breaking point”.
They said: “The infrastructure simply is not there to take any more new homes. A small Co-op on the Longlands development just is not going to ease the pressure on Tesco, where you are lucky to find a parking space.
“The traffic is a nightmare, the schools are full and even a new doctors’ surgery will struggle to cope.
“Something drastic needs to happen before any new homes are built on this already pressured small village.”
Highways England and Gloucestershire County Council’s Highways department have not objected to the scheme.
A design and access statement, submitted to the borough council by Gladman Homes, said a new food store would serve Bishop’s Cleeve residents and proposed employment land would provide job opportunities.
In a council document, an officer said the harms of the development would “significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits”.
Councillors will determine the application on July 16, from 10am.