Conservatives

Leader of the council Andrew Johnson highlighted that the golf course is an allocated site in the Borough Local Plan and the administration would have to remain BLP ‘compliant’.

The Borough is in a joint venture with CALA Homes for the development of the site and there has been ‘some development’.

“We can’t just rip it up and do nothing with that site. There would be consequences if we did,” he said.

“We will continue with our current trajectory – also, we’re going to be asking for 1,500 units. We’re broadly aligned with CALA homes on that.”

Previously, CALA Homes said it is expecting to apply for planning permission for up to 1,800 properties, down from an expected 2,000.

“1,500 is about the right kind of figure for that site,” said Cllr Johnson. “That’s a 25 per cent reduction, which is not insignificant.”

He added that the project has been improving in a few ways since its inception.

“There will be a lot more trees retained than was originally the case and there will be a lot more family housing,” said Cllr Johnson.

Having larger homes taking up more space on the site is not expected to make the site less valuable, despite there being fewer dwellings. It would be ‘more or less the same’, said Cllr Johnson.

The leader added there was potential for a ‘massive key worker affordable housing scheme’ in addition to the market sale and affordable housing offer already on the table.

“We would buy up unsold market housing and hold it for a group of individuals defined as keyworkers – that could be doctors or teachers, or could target industry graduates.

“That would really make a difference – the Borough’s really expensive, we all know that. I think it would make a significant contribution in terms of retaining young people to stay in the Borough.”