'Preferred' housing site plans for Pangbourne resubmitted

Application previously refused prior to housing document being published

PLANS to build homes on a preferred site in Pangbourne have been resubmitted.

Pangbourne Beaver Properties has resubmitted its hybrid application for 35 homes and a full application for pedestrian and vehicle access off Pangbourne Hill.

The site was announced in West Berkshire Council’s housing sites allocation development plan document (DPD) in 2014.

The council refused the application in April 2015, saying that granting planning permission would be premature and would undermine its planning process.

But with the council approving the DPD in November, the developer said there had been “a fundamental change of circumstances which mean that prematurely is no longer a justifiable basis”.

It said: “Since [the DPD] attracts significant weight, the inclusion of the application site weighs heavily in favour of the proposed development.

“As the application is the first since the DPD was approved,” Pangbourne Beaver Properties said, “approving the plans will show the council’s commitment to implementing its plan-led approach to increasing housing.”

The developer has also appealed against the council’s decision and a six-day inquiry is set to start on April 19.

Pangbourne Beaver said that the latest application provides the council with an opportunity to approve its plans in order to avoid the costs of an appeal.

However, residents have begun lodging their objections to the scheme.

The site is outside the village settlement boundary and in the Outstanding Area of Natural Beauty.

Arguing that national planning policy states that settlement boundaries can only be altered in exceptional circumstances, D Cuthbert said that the DPD was not complete and that the site should not be developed.

Terry Pollard called the developer’s behaviour “questionable” as residents would have been pre-occupied over the Christmas and New Year holiday.

He added that the sewers on Pangbourne Hill were not fit for purpose and would only deteriorate if extra homes were built.

“The result of this additional burden will be mainly borne by the downhill houses of Pangbourne Hill who have repeatedly been subject to mains sewage flooding,” he said.

And he added that the developer had failed to address the issue of the site entrance being at an “accident blackspot”.

Another resident said that the development would be “the largest housing development Pangbourne had ever had”; classing it as a major development.

“There are no exceptional circumstances, and it is not in the public interest as nearly 200 objection letters from local residents show.”

A decision is expected from West Berkshire Council by Wednesday, March 16.