500 Homes for Hullbridge Recommended for Refusal

onlineFOCUS readers will be aware of the slow pace of the planning application for 500 houses in Hullbridge by David Wilson Homes/Barratt on the Malyons Farm site, however, this Thursday, (full details in the link) the Development Committee will meet to discuss the application.

The controversial building of 500 homes may be ‘stalled’ by Rochford District’s planning officers as they recommend refusal on quite a few reasons;

20 RECOMMENDATION

20.1 It is proposed that the Committee RESOLVES That planning permission be refused for the following reasons:-

1. The proposal, by reason of:-

• its unsatisfactory layout; in particular, the manner in which the parking would be provided, which in many locations would present an unattractive appearance in the street scene;
• the buildings proposed which, because they would be standard house types, with no features that would make them in any way unique, would not result in the achievement of a sense of place and distinctiveness particular to Hullbridge;
• there being insufficient differentiation between the Character Areas, which is a device designed to achieve variation in appearance and character across the development;
• the failure to achieve a tightly built up street frontage in the central part of the Village Core Character Area, consistent with the urban character that is proposed to be a key feature of this Character Area; and o the narrow range of external finishing materials to be used, which contributes to there being insufficient differentiation and variety in the appearance of the development generally and, in particular, between the 3 Character Areas would fail to achieve a development that has character and is sufficiently distinctive in appearance, with a sense of place that makes it unique to Hullbridge.

The proposal would also fail to meet the space standards set out in the “Technical Housing Standards – Nationally Described Space Standard”, March 2015, and would not, therefore, provide a satisfactory standard of accommodation for potential occupiers of those dwellings that fail the national standard. The proposed development would, therefore, be contrary to policies CP1 and DM1 of the Rochford District Council Local Development Framework Core Strategy (adopted December 2011), policies DM1 and DM3 of the Rochford District Council Local Development Framework Management Plan (adopted December 2014) and to the national applicable space standards referred to above.

We think that it would take a ‘brave’ councillor(s) to try to justify overturning these reasons for refusal as it would appear the application ‘falls short’ on a number of points. We’ll update this post after Thursday with the outcome of the committee’s decision. Watch this space!