A PLAN to build 16 luxury homes on the site of a commercial vehicle depot has been thrown out by Warrington planning chiefs.
Members of the borough council’s development management committee refused consent for the development on the site of the Trucks-2-Go site in Warrington Road at Mee Brow, Culcheth – despite officers recommending the scheme be approved.
Concerns about traffic and parking were the main reasons councillors opposed the scheme, put forward by house builders Elan Homes.
The committee was told the scheme would involve demolition of existing buildings on the site.
Part of the site was undeveloped and in the Green Belt, but this would remain as an amenity area. A public footpath would have to be diverted.
Culcheth and Glazebury Parish Council had lodged objections on traffic parking grounds and also questioned whether a development of four and five-bedroomed houses was appropriate for the village.
They pointed out that traffic is extremely heavy on Warrington Road.
Planning officers said the proposals were appropriate in a Green Belt area. The developer had agreed to pay £320,812 towards the cost of affordable housing elsewhere and also £48,513 towards education enhancements at Culcheth High School.
1 Comment
It is heartening to see that with one notable and predictable exception the planning committee chose to ignore WBS’s usual “default answer to a planning application”. Instead it sought a more sensible mix of high end and affordable housing from this development. That we need more housing in this town is not in question, but there is little doubt the priority is for more affordable housing. Making developers pay notional sums as contributions towards affordable housing, is pandering to the needs of developers and ignores the needs of the communities where this type of scheme is intended to be built. Applications from developers should only be considered viable where affordable housing is built in or very to the proposed development; and not in neighbouring boroughs as is currently the case. Let’s hope this decision indicates a change for the better with WBC planning committees and that it will in turn effect a change in how the Local Plan housing calculations are made.