Homes on old soccer pitch fall foul of council planners
Increase in traffic and harm to pedestrian safety also a concern in plan for seven bungalows
PLANS to build seven bungalows on a former village football pitch have been thrown out.
Planners at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council have refused outline planning application for two-bedroomed units at the former Kingsley football pitch located in Holt Lane for Hammonds Construction.
Kingsley Parish Council had recommended refusal of this application on the following grounds:
The land is in the green belt and there are no exemptions to justify breaching the green belt protection
The land has not been identified as land suitable for development within the SMDC Local Plan, (nor has it ever been considered as such in any former draft of the plan)
The proposed dwellings are built on or immediately adjacent to footpaths
Objection letters were also received from six properties in the area raising concerns which included:
Out of keeping with village character as enough new housing has been built in the village
The site is in the Green Belt
Loss of green space
Unsafe access on bend
Harm to highway and pedestrian safety on this stretch of road including during the construction phase
Increase in traffic also due to poor public transport
Harm to countryside
In a report recommending refusal, case officer Chris Johnston said: “The site is deemed to be in the countryside for the purposes of the Local Plan, because it is outside of the development boundaries.
“Policy SS10 is the strategy for the countryside and it states that strict control over inappropriate development in the Green Belt will be maintained in order to protect the openness of the Green Belt.
“The site is not enclosed by development and has open land on three sides, the proposal would also not be deemed to be “infilling”.
“Affordable housing is listed, however, the housing put forward, while intended to be rented, would not make this compliant with the Local Plan’s affordable housing policy, Policy allows social rented housing, intermediate (part rented, part owned) or discount market homes only, starter homes or ‘First Homes.’
“There is no details given to suggest this would be affordable housing and so it is assumed this would be a private rented housing scheme which is not in accordance with Policy.
“The development is therefore deemed to be inappropriate development in the Green Belt which would by definition be harmful to its openness and should only be allowed if there are “very special circumstances” which are considered to outweigh the operation of Green Belt policy and which would outweigh the level of harm identified.
“The applicant has not put forward any ‘very special circumstances’ and none appear to exist.
“The proposal would offer a new Community Play Area but there is already a play area at the recreation ground near the middle of the village and a further one a short distance away in Kingsley Holt.
“So there is no evidence of an overriding need for another and even if such play areas did not exist in both of the villages, it is doubtful that a new one with a significant evidence of need would be considered a benefit which would outweigh the level of harm to the Green Belt caused by seven new dwellings on open Green Belt land.
“I therefore, do not consider there are any ‘very special circumstances’ with this proposal.
“There is also no significant demonstrable need for seven further new dwellings of any form in the village to the extent that this current site in the Green Belt should be considered to help meet any local housing need identified.
“The proposal would amount to inappropriate development in the Green Belt which is therefore, by definition harmful to the openness of the Green Belt.
“There are no very special circumstances which would outweigh this harm.”