Plans submitted for dozens more homes in Bishops Green

A scheme for 50 more homes in Bishops Green has now been submitted – directly opposite plans for up to 350 houses.

As previously reported in the Newbury Weekly News, housing company Hathor Property has targeted a site on the west side of Ecchinswell Road, on greenfield land just north of Harrier Road, which is currently used as a paddock.

The site is directly opposite the proposed College Copse Fields scheme – a potential 350-house development by land promoter Catesby Estates that has the potential to transform the nature of the North Hampshire village.

This scheme, the promoter argues, would turn Bishops Green from an “incidental settlement” - which emerged in response to military accommodation needs - into a “sustainable village community”, bringing social and economic benefits.

Under Hathor Property’s scheme – marketed as ‘Woodside View’ – the company hopes to build a variety of house types, with a focus towards two-bed and three-bed homes, as well as one-bed flats and four-bed houses.

It says the development “will include a range of housing tenures including affordable and open market dwellings”, with the number of ‘affordable’ houses determined at the next stage of the application, if the current application for outline planning permission is approved.

Entrance to the site would be off Ecchinswell Road.

In a design and access statement prepared by the applicants, it says: “Overall, the site demonstrates that the scheme is a logical extension to Bishops Green and will help to provide direct connection from the settlement to the recently approved application to the north [for four homes].”

The site has been put forward for housing in the borough council’s 2021 Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA), which identifies sites with the potential for housing or employment and informs decision making on future developments, but doesn’t determine whether a site will be allocated housing in the council’s Local Plan.

Other Bishops Green sites in the SHELAA include the College Copse Fields site for around 400 homes, a site on Bishops Green Cottage for an estimated 72 homes and a site in southeast Bishops Green for around 30 homes.

The scale of the scheme will be disappointing to local residents, and both the parish council’s neighbourhood plan consultation and the borough council’s Local Plan Update suggest the community needs a smaller amount of homes.

Bishops Green has been allocated 15 homes in the borough council’s rural spatial strategy, which is part of the borough council’s Local Plan Update.