Four luxury homes can be built on the approach to a village after the Planning Inspectorate overturned refusal by East Cambridgeshire District Council. Despite a recommendation from their own planning officers to agree to the 4 homes, the council planning committee voted for them to be refused claiming their “excessive depth” would “significantly harm” the countryside.
But planning inspector J Somers has allowed the appeal by Selica Sevigny against the decision of East Cambridgeshire District Council.
It means the site’s former use – as a redundant commercial yard – will end and houses will be built to the north of 9 Stretham Road, Wicken, four miles from Soham.
The inspector said the main issue is whether the proposal would provide a suitable site for development.
“The appeal site consists of a parcel of land which has previously been used for industrial development and contains a large area of hardstanding,” said the inspector.
“Having visited the site, the character is rural, but still feels organically as part of the village, with footpath opposite, low speed limit and dwellings diagonally opposite and adjacent.
“Given the varied nature of development along Stretham Road, there is no intrinsic linear or single depth character which is present.
“In my mind the emphasis of visual gaps and spaciousness in this location is an overriding characteristic that contributes to the positive qualities of local distinctiveness.”
The inspector said arguments had put forward about the size of the proposed homes and the need for smaller units, but the housing mix was not a planning policy.
Mr Somers said taking everything into consideration new homes “would be generally in conformity with the thrust and aims” of council policies.
And taken as a whole, “would be a suitable site for residential development that reflects the local character and distinctiveness of the area”.
The application site has been in separated ownership to No. 9 Stretham Road and has not provided employment for over six years.
The B8 storage use is restricted by a planning condition to the occupiers of No. 9 Stretham Road.
The committee had been told the site was marketed continuously for 12 months from July 2020. Two offers were received: one for £30,000 below asking price and one for £20,000 below asking price. No offers were accepted.
“The application states several agents were approached to see if further, more recent, marketing would be beneficial to the proposal, however, general consensus was there would be little point,” the report added.
Parish councillor Liz Houghton told the committee that Wicken Parish Council opposed the application and said the village’s housing stock had already risen by 35 per cent in recent years having “suffered with speculative development”.
She said: “Why is more being considered, let alone allowed. According to the recent review of the Local Plan, East Cambs does not need these houses to meet its housing supply, in fact, it has a reduced target.
“If this is allowed to go ahead, it will be held up as a precedent for every speculative application outside a development envelope in East Cambs.”
She said that whilst it is acknowledged this is a brownfield site “we would expect exceptional design in a rural, open, prominent location such as this. This design is not exceptional, the tandem layout of the dwellings is not in keeping with the vicinity, most development is linear.
“The site is at the entry point of the village from the west and would have a clear visual impact. These houses show limited design interest and are far more dense than other properties of this size nearby.
“Wicken has and continues to maintain the need for smaller sized dwellings.”
The application was also opposed by local district councillor Lucius Vellacott.
“I look at these applications as a local councillor but firstly I look at them as a local young person and the current housing market is incredibly difficult, especially in East Cambridgeshire, with prices higher than average and what is worse, nobody seems to want to build smaller or affordable houses in rural villages like Wicken,” he said
“Our Local Plan specifically requires smaller houses in Wicken within the development envelope and this application falls short in too many ways.
He added: “The proposal’s merits – the biodiversity improvements are incredible, and I commend it very much and it also does build on brownfield land which the National Plan Policy Framework indicates is relevant, however, that is far from sufficient reasons to depart from policy.
“The proposal would contradict other policies which negate that consideration.
“This application shows a total lack of awareness about the village in which it is proposed to be built, it creates a new street scene in the countryside, even if it is only slightly outside of the village and that is not permissible.”
Cllr Vellacott added: “I would be more likely to support this application if smaller market houses or affordable houses were proposed on this site, as Wicken’s regulations in the Local Plan actually call for, even though it would still be outside the development envelope.
“I would instead be sitting here saying I am not happy about the development envelope, but this is what we need. Wicken has had two marketed 2-bed houses in the last five years which is simply not enough.
“Wicken doesn’t have any appropriate infrastructure to sustain any form of speculative development wherever it is located, and it is frankly disappointing that developers frequently contradict this requirement.”
He said the agent had mentioned it was close to a bus stop “for the one bus that stops a week, therefore I frankly feel the infrastructure has not been considered properly and committee should apply weight to that.
“If the committee were to approve this application, it would permit by precedent many further large houses on sites surrounding Wicken, the effect of this is to push young families out of this beautiful village and it secures no investment in the infrastructure or community.
“The pub has only just reopened and that was quite fortunate. The committee has in the past, turned all such development down.
“Growth in East Cambs is obviously inevitable, but it must be strictly infrastructure first, it must be community led and more importantly it must be policy compliant because we fought hard for that policy and Wicken does not yet have a Neighbourhood Plan to supersede any of it.
“This application doesn’t meet those three criteria, infrastructure first, community led and policy compliant, so I strongly recommend the committee to refuse planning permission.”
