Sandleford developer accused of fast-tracking application
Bloor Homes says second surprise plan for the site is to help meet timescales
ONE of the Sandleford Park developers has been accused of trying to fast-track through the district’s largest yet housing application.
Bloor Homes Southern submitted a ‘hybrid’ planning application for up to 2,000 new homes, two new primary schools and a 415-acre country park on land off Monks Lane in south Newbury in December.
The hybrid application comprises an outline masterplan application for the entire site, as well as more detailed plans for the first phase of the development, which would see up to 337 homes and one of two new schools built.
However, last week the developer surprised everyone by submitting a second, virtually identical application for the first phase of the project.
Bloor Homes said it put forward the plans to “help the council meet its timescales” for delivering 400 of the 2,000 homes by 2020 – but the council said this week that it did not request the new application.
The council’s Sandleford Park Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) stipulates that the council will only accept one single planning application for the site.
A spokesman for Bloor Homes Southern, Daniel Hayman, said: “The separate, simpler application for the northern parcel has been submitted to help the council meet its timescales for the site to begin delivering 400 new homes by 2020. It is identical to the details for the northern parcel submitted as part of the hybrid.”
A spokeswoman for the council, Peta Stoddart-Crompton, said: “The application was expected as the developer has long indicated that it would be made. However, the council has discouraged it because, at this stage, it does not comply with the policies outlined in the supplementary planning document for Sandleford, that states that any application must be for the site as a whole.
“Bloor Homes is aware of this and have still chosen to submit the application.
“The council will now assess the application, considering all relevant local and national policies and all other material considerations before making a final decision.”
‘Say No to Sandleford’ campaigner Peter Norman believes this is the developer’s way of ensuring the application is fast-tracked through.
Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News, he said: “Bloor knows the application is outside of the SPD for a single application, therefore they know it is invalid before they even start it.
“You don’t spend £67,000, or whatever it is, on an application that is invalid unless you have good reason. Bloor told me it was in response to a request from West Berkshire Council, but the planning department is absolutely adamant that it didn’t put a request in and is just as baffled as everyone else.
“Approving this new application would completely undermine the council’s desire to have Sandleford developed as single site.”
Mr Norman said there was a real threat that the delays to the Sandleford application would see the council’s five-year housing targets “shot to pieces”.