Council rejects plans for 352 new homes

A developer has been told it cannot build 352 new homes after councillors said its plans were "incomplete".

Planning officers at Fenland District Council recommended to approve the proposal from Seagate Homes for land in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.

It would have seen the new homes built on land off Halfpenny Lane. About 49 of the properties were proposed as affordable housing.

A vote on Wednesday at the authority's planning committee agreed unanimously to refuse the application. The developer can appeal the decision to the Planning Inspectorate.

During the meeting, Lee Russell, the technical director at Seagate Homes, said it had taken a "significant number of years and committed effort" to bring the plans forward.

He said the development would offer a "wide range of housing" and would deliver a large area of open space for people to use.

Mr Russell also said a "considerable amount of time" had been spent to reach an agreement with the Cambridgeshire County Council highways team about proposed off-site road improvements, including new crossing points and bus stops.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said officers recognised that the financial contribution of £2,000 per plot was not enough to cover the needs created by the development.

The report said: "It is acknowledged that the proposed financial contributions fall significantly short of the requested education and healthcare contributions, which would result in the proposed development creating an additional burden on existing infrastructure."

Councillors shared concerns including additional traffic, the viability of the development by plans to build a new incinerator in the town and ongoing maintenance of on-site water level and flood risk management systems.

Charlie Marks, a Conservative councillor at Fenland District Council, said he had "severe reservations" and more questions needed to be asked.

"I actually think it is an incomplete application, because we have not got all the information in front of us."

However, Ian Benney, a Conservative councillor at the authority, welcomed the application and believed the site was the right place for development.

"Wisbech needs to take its share of the housing market in Fenland," he said.

Although he believed the application was "incomplete", he said without it, it could "rob a generation of a chance at homeownership".

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