The company behind plans to build up to 70 new homes on the site of a former riding school in Lancaster say they’ll appeal the decision to refuse them permission.
This week Lancaster City Council planning regulatory committee rejected proposals for the new houses at the former equestrian stables near Ashton Road.
The Canal Bank Stables site was formerly home to a livery business and riding school, and currently includes small paddocks and stable buildings.
But a report to councillors said that the scheme would harm the 'peaceful retreat' of the Lancaster Canal.
In addition, there were more than 75 objections to the proposals from members of the public.
The scheme by WVC Lancaster Limited was asking for outline planning permission on the 3.36 hectare greenfield site, north of Ashford House, for up to 70 homes with public open space and creation of a new T-junction on the A588 (Ashton Road) to access the development.
It also proposed 30 percent of the development would be given over to affordable housing (21 of the 70 homes).
The application stated: "The proposals provide an opportunity to deliver a comprehensive sustainable housing scheme delivering much needed new family housing within Lancaster.
"The site would deliver a mix of new homes to suit a range of needs, new high quality green spaces for people to enjoy and new pedestrian and cycle links, which would integrate the site into the surrounding active travel network.
"The scheme embraces good design and placemaking principles to create an accessible, sustainable, high-quality place where people want to live. The site is well located adjacent to new residential development and can help contribute to meeting local housing needs.’’
From the company, Warren Cadman told Beyond Radio he was ‘’extremely disappointed that the planning committee did not give the application the careful consideration it deserved,’’ and questioned the process under which the decision had been made.
The council report considered said: "The proposed site is located within a valued landscape, designated as an Urban Setting Landscape (USL), alongside Lancaster Canal that forms an important green space network in the district.
"The character of the area is open, rural, and tranquil and provides an important visual frame to the existing urban area and offers a peaceful retreat along the canal from the urban area.
"The proposal for residential development fails to preserve the open nature and character of the area resulting in significant harm to the landscape character of the site, the visual amenity of the area and the value and integrity of the canal corridor as an important green space."
Among the objectors were Aldcliffe with Stodday Parish Council, who said: ‘’The development will add more traffic to an already busy road, close to existing access points, and will add more traffic to the rural lanes through the parish, as drivers chose to rat-run through the country lanes to avoid the congested city centre.’’
In response to the decision, Mr Cadman told us: “We were not surprised by the outcome, but we felt extremely disappointed that the planning committee present yesterday did not give this application the careful consideration it deserved.
‘’There was no debate and no discussion of the merits of the scheme, simply technical queries regarding the case officers verbal update given in the meeting. Despite the planning officers comprehensive report, this suggested that some members had limited knowledge of the development, which was poised to deliver up to 70 new homes including a fully compliant 30% affordable homes contribution, £898,000 in S106 infrastructure contributions, and the highest ever energy efficiency standards for a development of this size in this district .
‘’We thank Cllr Brookes for his comment that this was a desirable and exciting scheme, although he was unable to support us in this location. We strongly assert that this application should not have been overlooked without debate and proper consideration, especially given the current housing need supply in this district, described recently by the Planning Inspectorate as ‘woeful’.
‘’Having turned down over hundreds of new homes in recent months and with the loss of government infrastructure funding which will see the development of South Lancaster put on indefinite hold, this district will take years to recover from these blows.
The company plan to immediately appeal.
‘’There was an additional reason of refusal on highway grounds added to the application, which gave us no chance to respond. This is unreasonable and unprofessional and now exposes City and County to a cost claim against them at appeal,’’ Mr Cadman added.
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